Water quality — Determination of hydrocarbon oil index Part 2: Method using solvent extraction and gas chromatography.
Get more information about the standard at ISO 9377-2:2000.
Facts about the ISO 9377-2 Standard Test Method
ISO 9377-2 is one of the most used standards for the determination of oil based hydrocarbons in water in Europe and is based on the DIN 38409-H53. It was created to replace commonly used methods (like DIN 38409-H18) depending on ozone-depleting substances (e.g. CFCs) as solvents for the determination of hydrocarbons in water.
It determines the so called hydrocarbon oil index (HOI) which reffers to the non-polar hydrocarbons with a retention time between n-decane (C10H22) and n-tetracontane (C40H82). The extraction is done by a CFC-free solvent (e.g. pentane or hexane) and followed by a clean-up step to remove polar substances.
ISO 9377-2 (mod) OSPAR
This modification was done by the OSPAR comission. Within this modification of the ISO 9377-2 pentane is the only solvent allowed for the extraction process. This enables to use n-heptane (C7H16) at starting point within the chromatogram and determine also the concentration of octane, nonane and decane.