Thermo-vaporization for decontaminating hydrocarbon source rocks

The study described in this article confirms that solvent extractable organic contaminants can be removed from samples by the novel thermo-vaporization method. The method is based on programmed pyrolysis and can be performed with a variety of available pyrolysis apparatus. After optimization, it was found that TV at 350 °C for 60 min or 375 °C for 30 min are both sufficient for removal of contaminants similar to the traditional solvent extraction method. A workflow for a thermo-vaporization based sample cleaning prior to pyrolysis is provided.