Background

Crude oil is raw material for petroleum products and contains sulfur in concentration from 0.5 mass% to 5.0 mass% typically. Residual fuel oil and high-sulfur diesel fuel are mainly used for boilers and burners, agricultural machines, and long-distance mass transportation means, such as vessels and diesel locomotives of rail road, equipped with large engines. Sulfur compounds in petroleum cause various harmful influences such as air pollution, metal corrosion and catalyst degradation. Therefore, sulfur concentration of crude oil and high-sulfur fuels is monitored or controlled in refinery and production processes in the petroleum industry.

X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry has been used for quantitative analysis of sulfur in crude oil and high-sulfur fuels including bunker fuel, owing to simple sample preparation. In XRF analysis of oils, 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 high concentration sulfur in crude oil, high-sulfur diesel fuel and residual fuel oil according to ASTM D2622-16 on Rigaku Supermini200, a benchtop wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (WDXRF) spectrometer.