Determination of sulfur in crude oils and related materials with a Parr bomb digestion method and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry

Abstract

A useful and rapid procedure is described for the determination of sulfur in crude oil and related materials by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry. The sample is digested by a Parr oxygen combustion bomb method and the sulfur content can be determined easily using simple aqueous solutions as calibration standards. The sample preparation only takes 20 min approximately. Some Venezuelan crude oils and similar materials were analysed and the results are compared with those obtained by X-ray fluorescence. To evaluate the accuracy of the method, a National Institute of Standards and Technology Standard Reference Material 1622 c Sulfur in Residual Fuel Oil was analysed. No statistically significant differences were observed between the results obtained and the certified value. The precision of the method is in the range from 1 to 3% expressed as relative standard deviation.