Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

Oil spills are serious environmental problems and a certain amount of spilled oil in ocean will eventually reach the shoreline. The stranded oil on shoreline may cause extremely detrimental effects on coastal biota and communities. The physicochemical properties of spilled oil on shoreline change through physical, chemical and biological weathering processes. To minimize the risk of shoreline oiling and develop effective response methods, it is necessary to understand the transport and fate of oil on shoreline. The fate of stranded oil on shoreline is complex and depends on a variety of factors. The chemical change of oil can occur and new derivatives can also be formed. In this process, the environmental persistent free radicals (EPFRs) play a crucial role in the migration and transformation of pollutants. To better understand the fate of stranded oil on shoreline, it is required to explore the formation of EPFRs derived from oil and the interactions between oil and fine particles present in the environment. The requested electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectrometer will be used to explore the oil fate associated with EPFRs on shorelines. This entails the works to (i) characterize the types and concentrations of EPFRs in the oiled shoreline, (ii) identify the oil migration and transformation pathways impacted by EPFRs, (iii) determine the interactions among oil and fine particles, and (iv) develop best response and cleanup practices for ensuring the minimum risk of oil on shorelines. The EPR can be used to develop a set of analytical methods for characterizing the fate of oil on shoreline as well as mitigating the risks through appropriate cleanup techniques, and extend the developed methods to multiple shoreline types nationally and internationally. The developed techniques will then be applied to oil spill response within a Canadian context. The proposed infrastructure associated with the existing analytical equipment in the Concordia University will form a unique environmental research facility in Canada. This investment will support a complex mixture of novel and standard R&D tools to foster innovative oil spill research and collaborations across multiple disciplines, and transfer knowledge to end users in various environment-related sectors. A strong research team with complementary expertise and established international reputations will conduct the related research. The detection of free radicals is at the forefront of environmental engineering. The requested EPR will provide students with state-of-the-art knowledge in the characterization of environmental radicals and training in a number of in-demand skills. The HQPs will be trained in instruments operations, experimental design, and result analysis. The obtained skills are critical for tackling practical spill response problems.