The Environmental Chemical Sciences (ECS) program of the Division of Chemistry will support the collaborative RAPID research project of Profs. Amy McKenna, Alan Marshall and Ryan Rodgers of the National Magnet laboratory at Florida state University. The collaborative team will employ start of the art mass spectrometry instruments in the national magnet laboratory to determine the exact molecular signature of oil from the Deep Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. They will monitor the evolution of this molecular signature over time as the oil degrades to determine what degradation by-products are formed. Samples for this study will be provided by Prof. Christopher Reddy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution who received an NSF RAPID award (OCE-1043976) to develop estimates of hydrocarbon dissolution fluxes arising from the sea floor oil seep and upwelling oil plume emitting from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead.
The study is crucial to elucidate the impact of the Deep Horizon oil spill on the ecosystems in the Gulf of Mexico. Better understanding of the molecular signature of the oil and its decomposition products over time is imperative to development of clean up strategies to restore the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf coastline to their condition prior to the Deep Horizon oil spill disaster.
This project generated primary data that serves two purposes: (a) molecular characterization of the Macondo well petroleum prior to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and (b) creation a molecular archive for the Macondo petroleum accessible to all researchers. Every oil spill is unique. The type of crude oil, volume, viscosity, water temperature, and location are fundamental to understand ecological, biological and environmental impacts associated with hydrocarbons released into the environment. The 2010 Macondo Well Mississippi Canyon 252 Deepwater Horizon oil spill resulted in the largest marine oil spill in United States history, with an estimated ~5 million barrels of crude oil expelled into the Gulf of Mexico over 87 days. As with any spill, characterization of both highly abundant and less abundant species is critical in determining how each spill will dictate molecular evolution and fate in the ecosystem in order to minimize environmental damage. For example, sulfur-containing species native to spilled oil undergo reactions to form sulfur oxides which upon combustion are eye and respiratory tract irritants. Sulfur content of the oil is important for in situ burns performed for the spill and how it will affect the environment and the long-term restoration of the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem. Preliminary results of the Macondo petroleum indicate that more than ~50% of the components have boiling points that prohibit their characterization by routine GC-based techniques. We used a combination of two different experiment methods for the molecular level characterization of the Macondo petroleum expelled into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 after the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon platform (ultrahigh resolution FT-ICR MS, and comprehensive two-dimensional GC×GC). Future efforts will include detailed molecular characterization of Gulf of Mexico oil samples suspected to originate from the Macondo well. There are at least six publications which will be published from this work. Many are about to be submitted and will be published in 2012. The molecular archive for the Macondo wellhead petroleum will be available to the public through www.magnet.fsu.edu before the end of year 2011.
