Identifying sources of oil spills in a refinery by gas chromatography and chemometrics: a case studyIdentifying sources of oil spills in a refinery by gas chromatography and chemometrics: a case study Peer-Reviewed Journal Publication Δημοσίευση σε Περιοδικό με Κριτές 2015-10-312008enThe aim of this study was the characterization of samples of petroleum spills that were derived from the oily free-phase zone in the subsurface of a petroleum refinery and the identification of the leakage origin. Principal component analysis and k-means clustering were applied on a simplified and easily obtained gas chromatographic data set. It was established that these methods are capable of discriminating among samples that exhibit similar composition and of identifying the refinery fractions that exist in the spills. The proposed methodology can be employed as a rapid and reliable screening tool in environmental studies dealing with oil spills, where mixed sources of leakage are expected.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Environmental Forensics9133-39 Pasadakis Nikos Πασαδακης Νικος Gidarakos Evaggelos Γιδαρακος Ευαγγελος Kanellopoulou Georgia Spanoudakis Nikolaos Σπανουδακης Νικολαος Taylor & Francis Fingerprinting Oil spills Chemometrics