Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Materials Today: Proceedings

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr

Determining new way to detect hydrocarbon polluted water at vertical

and horizontal spaces
Hussein S. Al-Bahrani a, Layth A. Al-Asadi a, Luay K. Al-Waeli a, Hussein F. Al-Isawi b, Adel M. Al-Jobory b
a
Faculty of Engineering, University of Kufa, Najaf, Iraq
b
Najaf Environment Directorate, Najaf, Iraq

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Remote and proximal sensing are important tools to discover surface and ground natural resources such
Available online xxxx as water, wealthy minerals, and hydrocarbons. The results of this study rely on discovering the ability of
water detector Aqua to detect many products of hydrocarbons and polluted water with hydrocarbon at
Keywords: different vertical and horizontal spaces on and under the ground. The importance of this discovery is
Aqua device helping to sense and detect the accurate location and underground depth of hydrocarbons and water pol-
Hydrocarbon polluted water lution with hydrocarbons as quickly and efficiently as possible by using Aqua device. Many laboratory
Detecting groundwater
experiments were carried out by Aqua on different gaseous, liquid, and solid hydrocarbon products.
Remote sensing
Field experiments were achieved to test the ability of the device to detect polluted water with hydrocar-
bons at different distances and depths. Verification of the results was also carried out when measuring
hydrocarbon concentration of several samples at the laboratory via the analytical method, relationship
between lab measurements of these samples and outcomes of Aqua has significant correlation and
determination.
Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 3rd International Con-
ference on Materials Engineering & Science.

1. Introduction Hydrocarbons evolve inside petroleum reservoirs, this reser-

Hydrocarbons are categorized as hazardous contaminants on
environment [1]. Water pollution with hydrocarbon represents a
challenge in many places around the world. Detecting this pollu-
tion in labs needs time, which is expensive too; therefore, it is
essential to search for fast and efficient method detecting and sens-
ing this pollution.
Hydrocarbons are organic chemical compounds consist of the
full union of hydrogen and carbon [2]. These compounds are
existed naturally underneath the ground because of organism
degradation at high temperature and pressure composing infinity
chain of hydrocarbons [3,4]. Hydrocarbons are classified into three
forms, either saturated, it is the simplest form of hydrocarbons,
consists of the unity of carbon atom with four hydrogen atoms (Cn-
H2n+2), or unsaturated hydrocarbons with dual bonds (CnH2n) or
triple (CnH2n-2) either single or multiple, the third form of hydro-
carbons is named aromatics, contains single ring or more (Fig. 1).
Hydrocarbons are usually found as gaseous state such as methane
and propane, liquid state such as hexane and benzene, solid state
such as paraffin wax and naphthalene, or polymers such as com-
pounds of polyethylene, polypropylene, and polystyrene [2].
voirs are lakes of oil and natural gas existed under the ground
inside the porous rocky layers. They are classified into conven-
tional and unconventional, in conventional reservoirs, hydrocar-
bons arise naturally such as crude oil and natural gas, which are
confined by rocky layers with lower permeability. In unconven-
tional reservoirs, the rocks that contain these compounds are with
high porosity and low permeability to make the hydrocarbons con-
fined in their place [5].
Remote and proximal sensing are used to sense and detect min-
erals and water; in Amazon region, satellite images and radar tech-
nology was used to explore Iron mines and determine their
amounts [6]. Jha et al (2007) managed and developed groundwater
prospects and constraints through remote sensing and GIS so as to
reveal six major areas of groundwater hydrology [7], Al-Bahrani
et al (2012) sensed the water quality index of Euphrates River in
Iraq for irrigation purposes depending on satellite images [8], he
also predicted and classified irrigation water quality parameters
at several stations along this river depending on mosaic satellite
image of Iraq map [9]. Al-Bahrani (2018) discovered the ability of
Aqua device to detect the transformation of salty water into mag-
netic water when exposing this salty water to a strong magnetic

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.12.261
2214-7853/Ó 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 3rd International Conference on Materials Engineering & Science.

Please cite this article as: H.S. Al-Bahrani, L.A. Al-Asadi, L.K. Al-Waeli et al., Determining new way to detect hydrocarbon polluted water at vertical and
horizontal spaces, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.12.261
H.S. Al-Bahrani, L.A. Al-Asadi, L.K. Al-Waeli et al.
Fig. 1. Chemical composition of aromatic hydrocarbons.
field [10]. Al-Bahrani and Al-Rammahi (2019) used Aqua remote
sensing device and GIS to classify groundwater quality of Najaf City
at sequential limits of depths [11].
Remote sensing is defined as acquisition of information at a dis-
tance about physical objects on the earth in order to detect and
classify targets by means of reflected or emitted electromagnetic
energy [12]. Proximal sensing is the same idea of remote sensing,
but it indicates to laboratory or field measurements instead of
sensing, images that cover larger spatial range [13]. Physical meth-
ods like sonar and sonic have the same characteristics of remote
sensing, but visible electromagnetic spectrum (Fig. 2) are not the
only media for transfer the information.
This study aims to discover the ability of Aqua device to sense,
detect, and find hydrocarbons and polluted water with these haz-
ardous organic compounds, beside, to determine their location and
depth quickly, efficiently, and accurately. The manufactured com-
pany of Aqua doesn’t discover these uses in its device and no one
uses them it before for these purposes.
2. Materials and methods
The water detector Aqua works by long distance sensing system
(LDS) and is supported with acoustic identification systems at
detecting frequency (1 – 9 KHz) to locate the path and point center
of water. The device be dependent on the finding of target through
the impact of waves out of the device with static electricity fields
formed around the target, the device’s waves amplify the size of
Fig. 2. Electromagnetic spectrum [12].
2
Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
these electricity fields and escalate to the surface so as to help
the device to detect the target from long distances (Fig. 3). This
device can determine and detect locations of targets from 200 m
distance and an angle of 360 degrees with precise control feature
at a horizontal distance search. The search depth in this device
can be reach up to 200 m underground with the possibility of pre-
cise control in search depth, the devise has the capability to work
in all types of terrains, and moreover it works successfully in differ-
ent kinds of soils and rocks. It has the ability to recognize natural,
salty, and mineral water, it can also detect all types of water [14].
Mineral water defines as water contains various minerals such as
carbonates and bicarbonates salts or sulfur compounds [15], while
salty water is water that contains a high concentrations of dis-
solved salts, mainly sodium chlorides [16].
Practical and laboratory experiments were carried out in this
study to determine the ability of Aqua detector to sense and detect
different types of hydrocarbon products and water pollution with
hydrocarbons at different distances and depths.
2.1. Detecting hydrocarbon products
Cook gas cylinder was used as an example of gaseous hydrocar-
bons. Cook gas consists of propane, which is unsaturated three -
carbon alkane with molecular formula C3H8 [17]. Benzene and
engine oil were also used as light and dense liquid hydrocarbons.
Medical Vaseline was tested too, it is a type of solid hydrocarbons
and is often named paraffin wax. Aqua device was operated at the
option of mineral water between container of drinking water and
these types of hydrocarbons, the device began to indicate to the
gaseous and liquid hydrocarbons, while it didn’t respond to the
solid type as shown in Fig. 4, when putting the device over the tar-
get (gas cylinder, benzene, and engine oil), the acoustic, light, and
moving indicators began to activate obviously while they did not
do the same action over the solid state of hydrocarbon (Vaseline).
2.2. Detecting water pollution with hydrocarbons
Two samples were prepared in the laboratory by mixing 10 L of
tap water with 0.10 L of gasoline for the first sample, and mixing
5 L of tap water with 0.05 L of engine oil for the second. Many tests
were achieved with Aqua device to investigate its ability to detect
these two polluted samples at different horizontal and vertical
spaces. The device succeeded to recognize these two samples as
polluted water with hydrocarbons at horizontal distances (0, 25,
50, 100, 150, and 200) m and two selected depths 1 m and 10 m,
H.S. Al-Bahrani, L.A. Al-Asadi, L.K. Al-Waeli et al.
Fig. 3. Detection procedure of Aqua device.
Fig. 4. Aqua detecting of different hydrocarbon states.
while it couldn’t detect the polluted water at distance greater than
200 m (Fig. 5). When the device detected the sample, the two
antennas of the device indicated directly to the sample, the device
rotated clockwise when it was put directly over the targets at dis-
tance 0 m. However, the antennas of Aqua indicated to another
side when the horizontal distance exceeded 200 m because the
device couldn’t detect the targets after the 200 m.
Another field test was done on a well located in Najaf Gover-
norate, Iraq at coordinate [44.153E, 32.231N], the well depth is
160 m. Its water is mixed with crude oil and deepens 35 m from
the ground. Aqua device succeeded obviously to detect the pollu-
tion of the well with hydrocarbon (crude oil) at several water levels
and distances up to 200 m, but the device hardly sensed the target
after the 200 m. As shown in Fig. 6, the antennas of the device
points to the location of polluted groundwater at all distances
except 220 m because the device couldn’t sense the targets at hor-
izontal distances greater than 200 m. These tests have proved the
aptitude of Aqua device to sense and detect surface and ground
polluted water with hydrocarbons at different horizontal and ver-
tical levels up to 200 m.
3. Results and discussion
Fig. 7 represents the response of Aqua device to different states
and types of hydrocarbon products through rotating velocity of the
3
Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx
device over these products. The rotating velocity over benzene
(188 revolution per minute) is speeder than other products
because the amount of benzene is larger than others, while the
rotating velocity over Vaseline is zero as a result of inability of
the device to detect solid state of hydrocarbon. These outcomes
have proved that Aqua detector responds to gaseous and liquid
hydrocarbons. This is happening when the device rotates clockwise
over the target after putting the device on the mineral water
option.
The laboratory and field experiments that are illustrated in Figs. 5
and 6 clarifies the ability of Aqua device to detect and recognize the
polluted water with hydrocarbons over and under the ground for
depths and distances up to 200 m. This detection is done quickly
and efficiently comparison with the analytical method.
Verification of Aqua results in this study done by calculating the
coefficients of correlation and determination between concentra-
tions of 5 samples measured by the analytical method [18] and
their rotating velocity when operating Aqua device over them at
mineral option (Table 1). As shown in Fig. 8, the relationship
between this pair of data is significant.
The novelty of this research is discovering the ability of Aqua
device to detect hydrocarbons and polluted water with these haz-
ardous substances, where the manufactured company of this
device does not discover this property and never record anything
about using this device to detect hydrocarbons at the guide of
H.S. Al-Bahrani, L.A. Al-Asadi, L.K. Al-Waeli et al. Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

Fig. 5. Aqua detecting of prepared polluted water with gasoline and engine oil.

Fig. 6. Aqua detecting of polluted groundwater with crude oil.

200 Table 1
180 Aqua response (revolution per minute) to hydrocarbon pollution comparison with
hydrocarbon concentrations.
160
Sample type Aqua response for Concentration,
140
rotang velocity , rpm

hydrocarbons, rpm mg/L

120
Polluted water with gasoline 186 56,680
100 Polluted water with engine oil 67 16,102
80 Polluted groundwater with crude oil 25 0.2
Tap water 0 0
60
Normal groundwater 0 0
40
20
0
Cook gas Benzene Engine oil Vaseline
Hydrocarbon type were done by the first author that the device rotates clockwise
when the solution contains organic carbon like hydrocarbons
Fig. 7. Aqua response to different types of hydrocarbon products.
(HC), while it rotates counterclockwise when the solution contains
inorganic carbon such as carbonates or bicarbonates (Fig. 9), this
virtue is also explored at the handhold unit of groundwater detec-
the device. Moreover, the company hardly clarify what are the tor WF-303 GH, this unit is like Aqua device could recognize and
affected elements that make the device detect the type water. It detect carbonic and hydrocarbonic water using remote sensing
have been discovered from these experiments and others, which technology [19].

4
H.S. Al-Bahrani, L.A. Al-Asadi, L.K. Al-Waeli et al. Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx

60000 CRediT authorship contribution statement

50000
Hussein S. Al-Bahrani: Conceptualization, Methodology,
Resources. Layth A. Al-Asadi: Writing - review & editing. Luay K.
40000 R= 0.99; R2 = 0.98
Al-Waeli: Software, Resources. Hussein F. Al-Isawi: Data curation.
Concentraon, mg/L

30000 Adel M. Al-Jobory: Investigation, Visualization.

20000 Declaration of Competing Interest

10000 The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
to influence the work reported in this paper.
-10000
Aqua response for hydrocarbons, rpm References

Fig. 8. The relationship of Aqua response to different water samples with their
hydrocarbon concentrations.
Fig. 9. Inorganic carbon (standard solution sodium bicarbonate 8.4%).
4. Conclusions
The study concludes the possibility to detect and sense gaseous
and liquid hydrocarbons in addition to polluted water with these
compounds via Aqua remote sensing device at distances and
depths don’t exceed 200 m. This discovery helps people who work
on Aqua device to recognize the type of groundwater in deep aqui-
fers whether it is mineral groundwater or just mixed with hydro-
carbons either naturally or manmade. Furthermore, the device
can be used to sense oil reservoirs and can give primary indications
of oil existence with the least cost and effort.
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