Screening of Ultra-Low Sulphur Diesel

The determination of sulphur in fuels is among the most important analytical applications in the petroleum oil industry. As one of the worldwide specialist manufacturers of analytical instruments for energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence analysis (EDXRF), AMETEK (USA) has a new application for its PHOENIX II EDXRF analyser for this analytical task.

The compact, inexpensive instrument has been designed for utilisation in refineries, pipelines, terminals, tank farms and distribution centers and is especially easy to operate. In production control and sorting control of sulphur petroleum oils, the instrument enables sulphur determination in accordance with ASTM D4294, IP 336, IP 496, ISO 8754 and ISO 20847.

The PHOENIX II design is ideal for the screening, identification and verification of ULSD (ultra-low sulphur diesel) at peripheral test points. Due to its polarised excitation source and rugged proportional counter detector, the PHOENIX II achieves a very low detection limit for sulphur while maintaining high precision for the measurement.

In addition to ULSD the PHOENIX II also measures sulphur at the higher levels in off-road diesel, aviation gasoline, kerosene, bunker fuel and crude oil, as well as the low sulphur in gasoline and diesel fuels.  Several elements can be measured in residual oils, lube oils, waste oils and cutting fluids. This enables the application to deal with many analytical tasks in production control in the petrochemical industry.

The PHOENIX II does not require an external mouse or keyboard and offers USB, VGA and Ethernet connections for networking and connecting to external devices. As a useful tool in the petroleum industry, the PHOENIX II XRF system gives the operator a unique combination of simplicity, high powered X-rays, a rugged detector system and a high sample throughput, all at a very affordable price.