Background

Sulfur in petroleum-based fuels contributes to atmospheric pollution. Sulfur content in fuels, especially in automobile fuels, is strictly controlled and regulations of sulfur content in fuel oil such as diesel fuel and gasoline have been tightened. Therefore, control of sulfur content is very important in refinery plants. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry has been used for quantitative analysis of sulfur in petroleum-based fuels, owing to simple sample preparation. In XRF analysis of fuel oil, samples are simply poured into liquid cells and any complicated treatment such as chemical decomposition or dilution is not required. In addition, concentration of total sulfur is obtained in XRF analysis. This application note demonstrates quantitative analysis of low concentration sulfur in diesel fuel, gasoline and kerosene according to ASTM D2622-16 on Rigaku ZSX Primus, a wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WDXRF) spectrometer.