Determination of the Light Hydrocarbons in Sediment Porewater from the Black Sea by Gas Chromatography (GC)

A sensitive and selective gas chromatographic (GC) method has been developed for the determination of dissolved methane, ethane, propane butane, pentane and hexane in seawater from sediment pores. For this purpose, a headspace method was developed. The dissolved methane concentrations in the liquid phase were calculated using Henry’s Law and in the gas phase using a partial pressure measurement. The method requires minimal sample preparation and provides low ng/L detection limits. The samples were collected from Black Sea bottom sediment porewaters.