Course code:
551H2		 Course name:
Organic Geochemistry and Petroleum Pollutants

Academic year:

2024/2025.

Attendance requirements:

There are no requirements.

ECTS:

9

Study level:

graduate academic studies, integrated basic and graduate academic studies

Study programs:

Chemical Education: 5. year, winter semester, elective (E5AP2) course

Chemistry: 1. year, winter semester, elective (E51H2) course

Environmental Chemistry: 1. year, winter semester, elective (E51S2) course

Teacher:

Branimir S. Jovančićević, Ph.D.
full professor, Faculty of Chemistry, Studentski trg 12-16, Beograd

Assistant:

Gordana Đ. Gajica, Ph.D.

Hours of instruction:

Weekly: four hours of lectures + two hours of exercises + three hours of labwork (4+2+3)

Goals:

A student has the possibility to meet the origin of fossil fuels and their composition. He meets transformation of organic substances in geosfere, and he has formed the full picture concerning the organic carbon cycle. A student meets the fate of oil type pollutants in all segments of the environment.

Outcome:

These knowledges are necessary in the case of student employment in petroleum companies. Also, knowledge of oil pollutants is very important because the oil and oil products are the main source of pollution in the period of last 100 years.

Teaching methods:

Lectures, theoretical exercises, labwork, colloquia.

Extracurricular activities:

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Coursebooks:
  1. D. Vitorović, B. Jovančićević: Organic Geochemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, 2005, 249 pp.
  2. B. Jovančićević: Practice in Organic Geochemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, 1999, 50 pp.
  3. B. Jovančićević: Scientific papers
  4. G. Gajica: Lab manual and instruction for work on gas chromatograph with mass spectrometer (GC-MS; remote access with remote control of instrument), internal script.

Additional material:

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  Course activities and grading method

Lectures:

10 points (4 hours a week)

Syllabus:

  1. Origin of the sediment organic matter. The organic carbon cycle.
  2. Diagenesis. fulvic and humic acids, humin, kerogen formation.
  3. Catagenesis:. bitumen formation, migration, accumulation, metagenesis.
  4. Kerogen: definition, isolation, structure determination.
  5. Oil composition, biological markers.
  6. Gas.
  7. Origin of coal. Coal-oil differences. Coal composition.
  8. Oil shale formation.
  9. Identification of oil type pollution.
  10. Migration of oil type pollutants.
  11. Microbiological degradation in water (normal alkanes and isoprenoids).
  12. Microbiological degradation (polycyclic alkanes).
  13. Microbiological degradation (aromatic hydrocarbons, alcohols, fatty acids).
  14. Microbiological degradation in soil.
  15. Bioremediation.

Exercises:

0 points (2 hours a week)

Syllabus:

  1. Problem solving tasks.
  2. Interpretation of results.
  3. Colloquia.

Labwork:

10 points (3 hours a week)

Syllabus:

  1. Determination of API density.
  2. Determination of group composition of the oil samples.
  3. Gas chromatographic analysis of the saturated fraction.
  4. Analysis of petroleum pollutants from water and sediment samples (liquid-liquid extraction, Soxhlet extraction and separation of fractions by column chromatography).
  5. Analysis of oil shale (extraction and separation of fractions of bitumen from bituminous shale).
  6. Pyrolysis of oil shale (extraction and separation of pyrolyzate of bituminous shale).
  7. Analysis of samples of petroleum, petroleum pollutants, bitumen and pyrolyzate of oil shale by gas chromatograph with mass spectrometer (GC-MS; method creation, sample run, data analysis).

Colloquia:

20 points

Oral exam:

60 points