Skip to content
Research Article Open access CC BY 3.0

Characterization and Sources of Aliphatic Hydrocarbons of the Sediments of River Oluwa at Agbabu Bitumen Deposit Area, Western Nigeria

Olubunmi E. Fagbote, Edward O. Olanipekun

Journal of Scientific Research and Reports · pp. 228–248 · Published 2 Apr 2013

10.9734/JSRR/2013/3063

Abstract

Aims: This research is aimed at determination of the distribution, concentrations, sources and origins of petroleum hydrocarbon in sediment. Study Design: River sediment samples were collected from five sampling sites from the sediments of River Oluwa at Agbabu bitumen deposit area and analyzed for n-alkanes content. Place and Duration of Study: Samples were collected from Agbabu bitumen deposit area, Western Nigeria, in years 2008 and 2009. Methodology: Analysis was carried out using gas-chromatography flame ionization detector. Diagnostic parameters used in identifying and estimating the origins of n-alkanes in the study area included Carbon Preference Index (CPI), Average Carbon Chain (ACL) and %Plant Wax Contribution. Results: n-alkanes ranged from 54.72mg/kg to 2002.4mg/kg, which were all higher than the recommended limit of 10 mg/kg. Sampling station OLSW1 had CPI value of 1 in the two sampling seasons, showing petrogenic source. The remaining sampling stations had CPI values that ranged from 0.22 and 0.52, showing bitumen related sources. ACL values were constant at 28 in all the sampling stations, except sampling stations OLSW1 (27.19) and M2SW (27.71), where they were lowered due to petrogenic contamination in the study area. Analysis of variance of the concentrations of n-alkanes with SPSS at α = .05 showed statistically non-significant differences. Conclusions: The sediments of River Oluwa at Agbabu bitumen deposit area were heavily contaminated with n-alkanes due to bitumen deposit, microbial activity, phytoplankton and algae, insects and plant waxes, and anthropogenic activities which included petroleum product transportation, fishing and laundry. Source diagnostic analysis of petroleum hydrocarbons with CPI gave values that were less than 1 at all sampling points, except OLSW1, indicating that bitumen deposit in the study area had impacted on the sediments of River Oluwa at Agbabu bitumen deposit area as a result of the predominance of even numbered n-alkanes.

Carbon-length sediments agbabu bitumen anthropogenic petrogenic biogenic

Cited by 23

Aliphatic Hydrocarbons Distribution in Sediment Cores of Select Creeks in Delta State, Nigeria

P. M. Eguvbe, C. M. A. Iwegbue, S. H. O. Egboh · Environmental Forensics · 2015

Petroleum Hydrocarbon Profiles of Water and Sediment of Algoa Bay, Eastern Cape, South Africa

Abiodun O. Adeniji, Omobola O. Okoh, Anthony I. Okoh · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · 2017

N-alkanes Sources and Distribution in the Sediment of Khor-Al Zubair Southern Iraq

Fatima F. Abo-Turab, Abbas H. Mohammed, Hamid T. Al-saad · Mesopotamian Journal of Marine Sciences · 2025

Petroleum Hydrocarbon Fingerprints of Water and Sediment Samples of Buffalo River Estuary in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

A. O. Adeniji, O. O. Okoh, A. I. Okoh · Journal of Analytical Methods in Chemistry · 2017

Occurrence and sources of aliphatic hydrocarbons in anthropogenic impacted soils from petroleum tank-farms in the Niger Delta, Nigeria

Onoriode O. Emoyan, Chiedu C. Ikechukwu, Godswill O. Tesi · Ovidius University Annals of Chemistry · 2020

Aliphatic hydrocarbon profiles in sediments of the Forcados River, Niger Delta, Nigeria

Chukwujindu M. A. Iwegbue, Eferhire Aganbi, Grace Obi · Environmental Forensics · 2016

Investigating Oil Entrance from Hendijan Oil Field in the Northwest of the Persian Gulf Using Chemical Fingerprinting

Mitra Cheraghi, Alireza Riyahi Bakhtiari, Mahmoud Memariani · Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology · 2024

Chemometrics, health risk assessment and probable sources of soluble total petroleum hydrocarbons in atmospheric rainwater, Rivers State, Nigeria

Daniel Omeodisemi Omokpariola, John Kanayochukwu Nduka, Henrietta Ijeoma Kelle · Scientific Reports · 2022

Showing 20 of 23 known citations — external sources report more than can currently be individually listed.

Article metrics

Real usage data collected on this platform.

0

Page views

0

PDF downloads

0

Outbound clicks

23

Citations

Views by country

Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".

No views recorded yet.

Traffic sources

Referring site, by host.

No traffic recorded yet.

Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.