• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.238-246
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• 2012

Once oil is spilled into marine environment, it experiences various weathering processes among which evaporation is the most dominant process in the initial stage of weathering. This study aimed to elucidate the effects of evaporation on the physicochemical properties of spilled oil using standardized laboratory experiments. Laboratory evaporation process was successfully reproduced using controlled rotary evaporation method. In case of Iranian Heavy crude (IHC), evaporation rate after 48 hours was $29.3{\pm}0.4%$ (n=40, p<0.001). Evaporation was simulated using ADIOS2 weathering model and the result was in agreement with laboratory experiment. Chemical composition changes of petroleum hydrocarbons including alkanes, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and biomarkers by evaporation rate were also analyzed. As oil evaporated, low molecular weight alkanes and PAHs decreased, while biomakers showed conservative characteristics. Among biomarkers, $17{\alpha}(H)$, $21{\beta}(H)$-hopane was used for calculation of weathering rates, which matched with evaporative mass losses. Weathering rate calculation using hopane showed that stranded oils of weathering stage I (28.9%) and mesocosm oil weathering experiment till 5 days (26.5%) were mainly affected by evaporation process.