Determination of sulphur in liquids obtained by thermal cracking of waste polymers and commercial fuels with different analytical methods

Low sulphur concentration in hydrocarbon products as fuels or lubricants is an important requirement for the high quality standards of refineries. A non-polarised energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (EDXRFS) and sample combustion technique (ASTM D6428-99) was compared. A new application of energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry as analytical method for the determination of sulphur in fuels and fuel-like fractions was investigated. Low sulphur containing fuels and hydrocarbon mixtures obtained by thermal cracking of waste polymers were measured and the influence of C/H ratio on accuracy was studied. The concentration of sulphur in samples was measured with calibration graphs of different hydrocarbon matrices (commercial gasoline, diesel oil and white oil were used). Good correlation was observed between the different methods, but the correlation was depending on the characteristics of the matrices. Detection limits of 1.0 ppm, 1.1 ppm and 0.9 ppm were obtained for S in gasoline, diesel oil and white oil, respectively.