|
Conducting ongoing sulphur analysis is an important part of ensuring the quality of petroleum products. This is because oil with low sulphur levels is considered to be higher quality. In fact there are two defining characteristics of crude oil by which it is judged; its density and its sulphur content. If sulphur analysis of crude oil samples returns a level of 0.5% sulphur or lower it is considered to be of the highest quality and termed ‘sweet’ crude oil. Sulphur is potentially very dangerous for health, for example it produces hydrogen sulphide when burnt. Sulphur is also very corrosive, damaging steel. So while sulphur can be useful in some applications low levels are far more desirable in crude oil. Examples of crude oil with exceptionally low levels of sulphur include Nigerian and North Sea oil. Sulphur analysis is repeated many times during the extraction and processing of crude oil. One way in which this is done is with xray fluorescence equipment, sometimes referred to as XRF spectrometers. Xray fluorescence works by transmitting xrays into oil samples in order to uncover its characteristics. XFR is considered the best method of sulphur analysis by the oil production industry. Other techniques such as injection, conversion or xray absorption are possible but are either less effective or ineffective depending on the environment or in the case of xray absorption are unsafe. British company Scientific & Medical Products Ltd manufacture and distribute a number of different XRF machines which are well suited to sulphur analysis. The greatest advantages of choosing from Scientific & Medical Ltd products is that they supply superior analytical machinery that is also extremely user friendly. There are ‘bench top’ varieties of sulphur analysis machine that have built in displays modelled on the icon based design of smart phones, making them very easy to use from the first use. The user interface is intuitive and responsive. Larger styles of spectrometer connect to your computer via software that again is developed to be highly usable. These are ideal for extensive lab analysis work which most oil companies conduct on a continuous basis. Sulphur analysis from www.scimed-xrf.co.uk. Visit their website for the latest technology in xray fluorescence.
Related Articles -
sulphur analysis, xray fluorescence,
| 
