Question

What is TPH?

Answer 1

The total number of components of the fossil fuel are together considered a part of the TPH. This TPH defines the components which are extracted from the crude sources below the earth’s crust.

Complete answer:
It is already known that crude oil which is extracted from below the earth’s crust contains multiple components which are part of the hydrocarbon family. This TPH or total petroleum hydrocarbon is considered as the family of all the compounds which can be extracted from crude oil. There are hundreds of compounds that are extracted and separated from crude oil.
The family is considered a petroleum hydrocarbon family because all components which can be separated from crude oil belong to the specific family of petroleum. Many of the petroleum products which are produced from crude oil are detrimental to the soil and water. This is why the TPH value is used for determining the presence of these components or the compounds from the given family. The level of these compounds defines the high level of such pollutants in that particular area.
TPH is measured together because there are hundreds of components of petroleum and it is difficult to measure each of the components separately. Therefore, the total level of all can be considered using the TPH value taking all the components into account for the particular region.

Note:
The extraction of separate components from crude oil is possible with the help of a mechanical separation process. There are microbial separation processes as well which can separate each of the components properly.