Determination of sulfur content of diesel fuels and diesel fuel-like fractions of waste polymer cracking

The element content of low and high sulfur containing diesel fuels was measured by different analytical methods: energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescent (EDXRF) and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission (ICP-OES) spectroscopy methods. Then results were compared. High sulfur containing diesel fuels were from heavy diesel engines and diesel fuel-like liquids obtained by thermal degradation of waste polymers. In case of X-ray analysis also the effect of the used thin foils with different chemical compositions (polypropylene, polycarbonate, polyester) on the accuracy was investigated. According to data considerable differences and deterioration of accuracy was observed in the respect of foils in case of both low and high sulfur containing hydrocarbons. Results indicated appropriate correlation between experimental results measured by both two methods, but differences could be observed in the correlation, which could be explained with different ratio of C/H of samples.