Characterization of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) in oily sludge from Cameroon petroleum refinery

The National Petroleum Refinery of Cameroon is a crude oil refining company that generates large quantity of oily sludge. The identification and quantification of standard hydrocarbons that can be recovered from oily sludge, the assessment of the distribution of the Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) of the sludge was realized using a simple gas chromatographic method. The results showed that the samples have an average constitution of 66% water, 2% fine particles and 32% hydrocarbons. It was also found that the 22 identified aliphatic hydrocarbons had a total concentration of 4,698.65 ppm of which the major hydrocarbon was n-C₁₁ (608 ± 47 ppm). The total identified PAHs concentration was 511 ppm and the major compound phenanthrene (98 ± 5 ppm). The chromatograms also showed that the compounds that are not standard heavy PAHs, resins and asphaltenes are present in the samples.