INFRARED FIBER OPTIC SENSOR FOR PETROLEUM

A recently developed silver halide fiber optic has been used for detection and identification of petroleum. The silver halide fiber was placed directly in a petroleum sample to obtain an evanescent wave spectrum. Spectra of 30 petroleum samples including crude oils and their distillates from different sources were measured in the region of 1350-700 cm(-1). Evanescent wave spectra of petroleum spills on water were used as an unknown set for a library search. The library search was performed in the region of 1000-700 cm(-1) and was used to correctly identify eight out of eight unknown petroleum spill samples. In addition, principal component analysis was used for the classification of different grade oils. Crude oils, kerosene, no. 2 fuel, and residual distillates could be classified into different groups.