Isotopic Evidence for Oil Sands Petroleum Coke in the Peace鈥揂thabasca Delta

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• 作者：Josu茅 J. Jautzy ; Jason M. E. Ahad ; Charles Gobeil ; Anna Smirnoff ; Benjamin D. Barst ; Martine M. Savard
• 刊名：Environmental Science & Technology
• 出版年：2015
• 出版时间：October 20, 2015
• 年：2015
• 卷：49
• 期：20
• 页码：12062-12070
• 全文大小：495K
• ISSN：1520-5851

文摘

The continued growth of mining and upgrading activities in Canada鈥檚 Athabasca oil sands (AOS) region has led to concerns about emissions of contaminants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Whereas a recent increase in PAH emissions has been demonstrated within around 50 km of the main center of surface mining and upgrading operations, the exact nature of the predominant source(s) and the geographical extent of the deposition are still under debate. Here, we report a century-long source apportionment of PAHs using dual (未²H, 未¹³C) compound-specific isotope analysis on phenanthrene deposited in a lake from the Athabasca sector of the Peace鈥揂thabasca Delta situated 鈭?50 km downstream (north) of the main center of mining operations. The isotopic signatures in the core were compared to those of the main potential sources in this region (i.e., unprocessed AOS bitumen, upgrader residual coke, forest fires, coal, gasoline and diesel soot). A significant concurrent increase (鈭?5.0鈥? in 未²H and decrease (鈭?.5鈥? in 未¹³C of phenanthrene over the last three decades pointed to an increasingly greater component of petcoke-derived PAHs. This study is the first to quantify long-range (i.e., >100 km) transport of a previously under-considered anthropogenic PAH source in the AOS region.