Environmental degradation of polluting aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons: a case study.

Oil extracts of Ukpeliede spill samples from Niger Delta (Nigeria) were analyzed by gas chromatography. The amount of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), especially the lower-molecular-weight naphthene, fluorine, phenathrene, pyrene, and benzo[a]anthracene, decreased within the sampling intervals of 2 months and 5 months. There was a predominance of three-to-six-ring PAHs over the two-ring PAHs. There was marked disappearance of n-C8 to n-C11 hydrocarbon fractions and the acyclic isoprenoids (pristane and phytane). The depletion of these molecules within the two sampling intervals suggests the possible attenuation of hydrocarbons as a result of the environmental modification within the set interval.