This paper investigates the use of ultraviolet fluorescence-spectroscopy to remotely detect petroleum leakage at industrial sites. To be successful, it’s imperative to be able to differentiate the fluorescence signals emitted by various petroleum products, which have been categorized in this paper. Petroleum’s fluorescence emissions are largely produced by its aromatic-hydrocarbon compounds. Considering that petroleum byproducts are composed of smaller molecular fractions distilled directly from crude oil, we measured longer fluorescent wavelengths from crude-oil than its fractional derivatives. This is due to the relationship between the length of a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and its HOMO-LUMO bandgap. Our methodology takes advantage of this quantum property in hopes of minimizing environmental damage.
