This National Science Foundation (NSF) Project Grant, awarded under the Engineering program (CFDA 47.041), provides $228,753 to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) to conduct research on the identification and characterization of petrogenic compounds, known as oxygen-containing organic compounds (OCOCs), that persist in aquatic environments following crude oil and petroleum spills.
The primary goals of this 3-year project are to: 1) determine how OCOCs form from crude oil spills and how environmental factors affect their persistence in contaminated groundwater; 2) evaluate whether biological "priming" of native dissolved organic matter alters OCOC molecular signatures; and 3) build a reactive transport model to predict the environmental persistence and distribution of OCOCs in oil-contaminated aquifers. This research combines experimental studies and field data to address these objectives, with the aim of providing stakeholders with information to assess the human and ecological health risks associated with OCOCs at contaminated sites.
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