5 
Scope of this study: the research and development project 
Chemical analyses were performed on 2239 samples so far. After a first cate 
gorisation, it turned out that paraffin wax is by far the most abundant kind of 
persistent floater (see Fig. 2). The predominance of paraffin wax emphasises 
the significance of this substance which can be considered to replace the 
classic oil pollution in numbers, since today, the latter is heavily regulated. 
Fig. 2: Composition of sample type 
according to the analysis. 
Background 
In the 1980s and early 1990s, coastal oil pollution resulting from oil spills at sea 
was a common and frequent event [2]. To reduce oil spill, legislation was tight 
ened and substantial improvements in oil spill forensics were sought. Based on 
the NORDTEST method (NORDTEST 1991), experts of the OSINet (Oil Spill 
Identification Network of experts within the Bonn-Agreement) developed a 
common methodology for oil identification work which was published as a 
CEN standard by the European Committee of Standardisation, the CEN/TR 
15522-2:2012 [3], in the following abbreviated with CEN2012. With regulations 
and effective enforcement tools, which allow the successful prosecution of pol 
luters, in place, the number of oil spills declined drastically over the last dec 
ades [9][10][11 ][12]. 
In recent years, however, numerous major incidents involving paraffin wax were 
observed along the North Sea coast from Denmark to the Netherlands [4, 5]. In 
March 2014, for example, more than 50 tons of paraffin wax was washed 
ashore on the island of Sylt (Germany) [6]. 
The sources for such spills are transport vessels which perform tank washing 
procedures.