Jet Fuel, Crude Oil, Diesel Blends: Applied NIR-Spectroscopy – Quality Control of Hydrocarbon Refining

Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) enables straightforward multi-parameter analysis of critical parameters for monitoring the refining of hydrocarbons. NIRS is a non-destructive secondary analysis method, NIRS does not require any handling of chemicals whatsoever, and real time measurements are performed at the push of a button.

NIRS is the ideal method for a wide range of applications: 

• Distillation of crude oil: API Gravity, Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP), density, PIANO
• Lubricant oils: aromatics content, density, flame point, oil content, PAH, pourpoint, distillation analysis, viscosity
• Diesel blends: cetan index, cloudpoint, density, FAME, colour, flashpoint, etc.

Metrohm (Switzerland) provides a comprehensive portfolio of NIRS instrumentation for laboratory and process analysis as well as a large number of documented applications (Application Notes). Among them are:

• AN-NIR-022 Petroleum product analysis by NIRS (cetane index, TAN, aromatics, and sulphur)
• AN-NIR-024 Measurment of diene value (DV) by NIRS
• AN-NIR-025 Real-time inline predictions of jet fuel properties by NIRS