Determination of Undesirable Volatile Organic Compounds in Petroleum Derivative Products by Thermal Desorption and Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry Technique

Petroleum remains the principal raw material for the manufacture of a wide variety of products with multiple uses. Within this framework, it is possible to find petroleum derivative products, such as paraffin waxes, with applications in the agri-food industry. Due to the above-mentioned use, the adaptation of the quality control of these products to the requirements of this industry is a factor to be considered by the producers to comply with food safety standards. The present study is focused on establishing the starting conditions for the development and optimization of an analytical methodology based on TD-GC-MS (Thermal Desorption – Gas Chromatography – Mass Spectrometry) that allows the determination and identification of the volatile organic compounds that are undesirable not only because of their smell but also because they may pose a risk to health as a result of prolonged exposure. Desorption time and temperature, as well as the chromatographic separation conditions, were studied to generate the right signals to identify the volatile organic compounds in the paraffin waxes.