ISSN: 1945-7553
CODEN: JTEVAB
Page Count: 7

Improvement of Sulfur Detection Limits in Petroleum Products Using ASTM D 4045

Tawara, K
Senior researcher, Petroleum Energy Center, Chiba-ken,

Kawabata, Y
Researcher, Sankisangyo Co., Chibaken,

Uno, Y
Researcher, Sankisangyo Co., Chibaken,

(Received 30 August 2001; accepted 14 August 2002)

Abstract

To prevent the adsorption impediment of H₂S in the trace sulfur analyzer approved by ASTM D 4045, a specially prepared pure ceramic tube has been advanced to be the only usable reactor for hydrogenolysis procedure. However, a conventional ceramic tube becomes usable by inhibiting the H₂S adsorption on the basic impurities by a substitute adsorption of CO₂ that can be introduced continuously with H₂ in the ceramic reactor. Applying the OxyHydro procedure to reduce the carbon deposit in the analysis of kerosene, a large overestimation error occurred in the determination of a single ppb of sulfur even using the specially prepared pure ceramic tube. The overestimation error was completely eliminated by the continuous introduction of CO₂ with H₂, even using conventional ceramic reactors. By following procedures to suppress noise from the system, the original limit of detection of 25 ppb sulfur for the analyzer was improved to 0.3 ppb.

Keywords:
sulfur analysis, ceramic tube, kerosene, carbon dioxide, OxyHydro procedure, ASTM D 4045

Paper ID: JTE12350J
DOI: 10.1520/JTE12350J
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