Authors: Michelle Karpinskya,*, Erik Campues a, Daniel Lopeza, Paul Bunkerb, Kenneth Furton PhD.a, Lauryn E. DeGreeff PhD.a

a Florida International University, Global Forensic and Justice Center, Miami, FL, United States
b Chiron K9, San Antonio, TX, United States


The current methods of detection for on-shore oils spills, specifically for subsurface oil, are labor intensive and time consuming. One tactic to reduce both of these factors is through canine detection. Recent studies have demonstrated the successful rate at which canines can find both surface and subsurface deposits of crude oil in a widespread area over a shorter amount of time. The headspace of crude oil is composed of a complex mixture of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), giving it a unique odor profile allowing for canine detection. Due to this complex nature, it is uncertain what VOCs or group of VOCs are responsible for detection by canines. Thus, there are two goals to this research. First is to gain a better understanding of the headspace profile of different crude oils. The second is to determine the components in those profiles that the oil canines can use for olfactory detection. In order to achieve these goals, odor profiles of several crude oils were characterized by solid phase microextraction (SPME) with gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS), followed by statistical analysis of the odor profiles. For the canine trials, fractions of the oil headspace were collected on sorbent materials and made into canine testing probes. These probes, along with negative and positive controls, were presented in canine testing exercises. Three fractions from both a fresh and weathered sample were presented to canines, resulting in a positive rate of 100% for all three fractions. These results indicate the canines’ capability of detecting crude oil from any fraction of the odor profile. The results also demonstrates the canines’ ability to generalize across many types of crude oils, even when outside influence, like source or weathering, have changed the headspace profile. To conclude the work, limitation studies are currently underway with pending results.