Rapid Detection of Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons in Soil Using Advanced Fluorescence Imaging Techniques

Chemical methods for measuring soil organic content are often slow and yield inaccurate results due to significant errors. Simple summation of components may not accurately determine total organic content. In contrast, fluorescence imaging techniques offer rapid, in situ monitoring without complex pretreatment and demonstrate rapid and accurate assessment of soil organic content. Utilizing a soil organic pollutant fluorescence imaging in situ monitoring system that we independently developed, we conducted laboratory experiments to explore methods for acquiring fluorescence signals of petroleum hydrocarbons in soil and extracting image features. We used this monitoring system to obtain fluorescence images of crude oil in standard soil (soil properties are shown in Table S1) samples at concentrations ranging from 0 to 100 g/kg, and the coefficient of determination of the total amount inversion model reached 0.999. Simultaneously, we applied the system to a deserted petroleum storage area, and the relative standard deviation values of 16 of the 18 groups of tests were less than 1%, indicating that the monitoring system is highly stable when applied in the field. This study provides both theoretical foundation and technical support for the rapid and nondestructive detection of total petroleum hydrocarbons in soil at field sites.