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Updated: May 25, 2026

Original Experimental Approach for Assessing Transport Fuel Stability
Published on: October 21, 2016
Using stable isotope analysis to discriminate gasoline on the basis of its origin
Su-Young Heo1, Woo-Jin Shin, Sin-Woo Lee
1Graduate School of Analytical Science and Technology, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, 305-764, Korea.
Rationale:
Leakage of gasoline and diesel from underground tanks has led to a severe environmental problem in many countries. Tracing the production origin of gasoline and diesel is required to enable the development of dispute resolution and appropriate remediation strategies for the oil-contaminated sites.
Methods:
We investigated the bulk and compound-specific isotopic compositions of gasoline produced by four oil companies in South Korea: S-Oil, SK, GS and Hyundai. The relative abundance of several compounds in gasoline was determined by the peak height of the major ion (m/z 44).
Results:
The δ(13)C(Bulk) and δD(Bulk) values of gasoline produced by S-Oil were significantly different from those of SK, GS and Hyundai. In particular, the compound-specific isotopic value (δ(13)C(CSIA)) of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) in S-Oil gasoline was significantly lower than that of gasoline produced by other oil companies. The abundance of several compounds in gasoline, such as n-pentane, MTBE, n-hexane, toluene, ethylbenzene and o-xylene, differed widely among gasoline from different oil companies.
Conclusions:
This study shows that gasoline can be forensically discriminated according to the oil company responsible for its manufacture using stable isotope analysis combined with multivariate statistical analysis.
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