Determination in soils of PAH produced by combustion of biomass under different conditions

The nature and concentrations in soils of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) generated by combustion of pine biomass under different conditions was determined by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry after their enrichment by a simple clean-up procedure. The patterns of pyrogenic PAH, presumably generated by thermal aromatization of biogenic precursors, vary for each sample. When burned at moderate temperature for a long period of time the most abundant homologues generated were alkylated derivatives of naphthalene, whereas phenanthrene alkyl derivatives were predominant after a forest wildfire, where higher temperatures are reached in less time. More condensed PAH included in well-known priority pollutant lists were detected only in minor amounts. No long persistence of PAH was observed in some soil samples analysed.