The downstream sector involves the refining of petroleum crude oil to finished products.
Refinery Applications - Elemental Analysis
Elemental analysis is a crucial process control tool for the refining process. Bruker’s PETRO-QUANT package is a universal calibration to quantify 30 elements by XRF in all kinds of hydrocarbons: Whether XRF is employed as a technique to quantify Sulfur from the crude oil to the liquid streams and in the refined products or to quantify Ni, Fe and V in crude oils. Since XRF can analyze the sample directly without digestion or dilution it is widely employed as process tool: Sulfur levels in fuels are regulated, compliance analysis can be performed with the benchtop WDXRF S6 JAGUAR by applying ASTM D2622 and ISO 20884 or other national norms. Residual fuel oils as well as solid petcoke can also be analyzed directly.
For the lowest detection limits as well as for testing P, Pb , S, Ni, V and many more elements in a laboratory setting the S8 TIGER WDXRF spectrometers is the preferred choice. The benchtop S2 POLAR is offered for smaller refineries and for regions where regulatory compliance for Sulfur and Ultra-Low Sulfur (ULS) can be done with EDXRF (e.g. ISO 13032, ASTM D7220 and D4294).
Oil & Lubricants – Elemental Analysis
Oils and lubricants have to fulfill different tasks in engineering. Beside lubrication they are needed to cool pistons in car engines and while metal milling, to protect against corrosion and to bind particles: Precise and reliable analysis of additives at the minor and trace level is the key for high product quality. XRF is the most important analytical method for the analysis of additives and impurities, no matter if oils, greases or waxes need to be qualified (ASTM D4927, D6443) and to detect engine debris in the form of wear metals (DIN 51396, 51399).
Plastics & Polymers
The final properties of a polymer like PE, PP, PET or ABS can be significantly changed by adding defined amount of additives. The Bruker POLYMER-QUANT A package allows for the quantification of the 10 most used additives and catalyst residues in all CH based polymer types.