Geographical classification of crude oil samples.

In the analysis of an environmental disaster caused by spillage of crude oil, limitation of the possible sources to a few geographical origins can help in the identification of the polluting vessel from a group of potential candidates. In collaboration with Instituto Hidrográfico (Lisbon, Portugal), we have shown that Kohonen self-organizing maps (SOM) can classify samples of crude oils on the basis of gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) descriptors, in terms of geographical origin, with a high degree of accuracy. This investigation adds value to the widespread GC–MS descriptors in use for practical analytical work, suggesting new ways to ferret out useful knowledge from them.

Ref: A. M. Fonseca, J. L. Biscaya, J. Aires-de-Sousa, A. M. Lobo, Anal. Chim. Acta 2006, 556, 374.