A technique used to reconstruct oil basins to help assess for possible oil content is now in the process of being “commercialized” and be utilized for steroids doping. Researchers headed by Colin Snape of the University of Nottingham claims that by using the process of hydropyrolysis, a more accurate urine sample could be taken and examined using carbon. According to him, the natural ratio level of carbon 12 and 13 in the body varies with those found when synthetic steroids have been introduced in the body. What hydropyrolysis does is it refines the measurements of these ratios to obtain a more accurate result.

Aside from carbon, high pressured hydrogen as much as 150 atmospheres is used as well as high temperatures reaching 500 degrees Celsius. It leaves the molecules in the samples in a cleaner and clearer state.

The researchers at the university are currently working together with the World Anti-Doping Agency to develop the test. They have entered into partnership with a company based in London specializing in high pressure equipment to commercialized this new discovery.

They believed that hydropyrolysis is a highly sensitive technique which could greatly benefit the world of sports.

According to Medical News Today:

Colin Snape, Professor of Chemical Technology and Chemical Engineering at the University, said: “Steroids are produced naturally in the body, but they have a different carbon 13/carbon 12 ratios to those that have been introduced illicitly. By refining the measurements of these two isotopes we can produce a very accurate test for the presence of illegal steroids in athletes.