Geochemistry of Aliphatic Hydrocarbon Compounds in Core Sediments from Sadong River, Malaysia
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2023
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Sadong River is a major river catchment in Sarawak, Malaysia. Sediments are useful tools in understanding the
environmental processes and are final sinks of hydrocarbons in rivers. Hydrocarbon biomarkers are organic
compounds found in the environment with structures suggesting an unambiguous connection with known
contemporary natural products. These specific indicator compounds which are found in extracts of geological
and environmental sample such as sediment can be utilized for genetic source correlations. Hydrocarbons
derived from biogenic sources appear with low concentrations in river sediments, while high level of
concentration in hydrocarbon compounds are attributed to be of anthropogenic source which often lead to
petroleum pollution. Several indices were used to distinguish the origin of n-alkanes in the river such as Low
Molecular Weight to High Molecular weight (LMW/HMW), Carbon Preference Index (CPI) and Average
Chain Length (ACL). Assessment of n-alkanes in the core sediments showed the hydrocarbons originated from
terrestrial sources and anthropogenic sources.
Description
Keywords
Hydrocarbon, Geological, Biogenic, Anthropogenic, n-alkanes