Published:Journal of Chromatographic Science,
ISSN 0021-9665Volume 40, Number 9, October 2002, pp. 500-504
Rapid Determination of Total Sulfur in Fuels Using Gas Chromatography
with Atomic Emission Detection
Dirk D. Link, John P. Baltrus, and Kurt S. Rothenberger
U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory, 626 Cochrans
Mill Road, P.O. Box 10940, Pittsburgh, PA 15236
Paul Zandhuis
NETL Site Support Contractor, Parsons Project Services, Inc., P.O. Box 618,
South Park, PA 15129
Donald Minus
Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, OH 45433-7103
Richard C. Striebich
University of Dayton Research Institute, Dayton, OH 45469-0132
The purpose of this study is to determine whether gas chromatography (GC)–atomic emission detection (AED) can be used in a low-resolution mode for rapid, accurate determinations of total sulfur in fuels at trace levels to complement other popular methods of total sulfur analysis. A method for the rapid determination of total sulfur in fuels (called “fast GC–AED”) is developed. The method is tested on gasoline, jet fuel, kerosene, and diesel fuel with sulfur concentrations ranging from 125 mg/L down to 2.5 mg/L. Fast GC–AED shows better performance than traditional GC–AED for total sulfur determinations, especially for complex mixtures containing many different sulfur-containing compounds at trace levels. This method also shows that GC–AED can be used for both rapid determinations of total sulfur and traditional determinations of speciated sulfur without requiring equipment changes. Fast GC–AED is competitive with other popular methods for sulfur analysis. The 5-min program that is developed for fast GC–AED is comparable with the time scale of other methods, such as wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence and UV-fluorescence (2 to 5 min). Fast GC–AED also compares favorably with UV-fluorescence for trace sulfur determinations, demonstrating accuracy down to 2.5-mg/L sulfur.
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