34 
BSH Report No. 56 
Outlook 
The techniques used and the statistics applied so far are focused on the bell 
shape of the n-alkanes within a paraffin-wax mixture. However, many samples 
contain isomeric compounds as smaller peaks between the n-alkanes or have 
a more pronounced “unresolved complex mixture” (UCM). These characteris 
tics are probably of the same uniqueness or individuality as the bell-shape. So 
it might be beneficial to look into a pattern-describing computation to map 
them as well. 
To reduce the analytical effort while still benefiting from the IRMS’ discrimina 
tion power between samples, It might be valuable to look into bulk analyses 
Instead of using a method based on single compounds. 
As this miniRR was based on real-life samples Instead of the usage of stand 
ardised reference material, accuracy of the analytical results (defined as cor 
rectness and precision) is unclear. Therefore, a repetition of the miniRR with 
pre-deflned standard material could be used to enhance the analytical preci 
sion so that the data of all participants would match even better. 
Some paraffin samples used for this miniRR contained higher boiling n-al 
kanes. The boiling points of these compounds exceed the temperature pro 
gram requested by CEN2012 and they are therefore not covered by the stand 
ard analysis. Thus, BSH conducted some investigations with a high-tempera 
ture GC-FID (HTGC-FID) and was able to separate compounds properly up to 
C70. It turned out that most of the higher boiling n-alkanes within the paraf 
fin-waxes also display a proper bell-shape, and can therefore be analysed with 
the same statistical methods as presented above. Further investigations will 
explore the meaningfulness of such work for paraffin spill identification.