Crude oil is a highly complex mixture of hydrocarbons and other compounds that through desalting, distillation and conversion is transformed into higher quality hydrocarbons. This refining is demanding and requires precise and reliable analysis.
Lubricant of the global economy
Nowadays crude oil, which consists of at least 500 different components, is processed by distillation and refining to produce liquefied gas, gasoline, diesel, heating fuel, and lubricants as well as a large variety of other products. As the «lubricant» of the global economy, crude oil is omnipresent. It covers approximately 40% of our energy demand and is used in the chemical industry for the production of plastics, textiles, dyes, cosmetics, fertilizers, detergents, building materials, and pharmaceuticals.
Explosion-proof systems for petrochemistry
In many cases, the IP66-NEMA4 housing of the Metrohm Process Analyzers will be sufficient. In some cases in the petro-chemical industry, however, explosion-proof systems are required. For those circumstances, the Metrohm Process Analytics 2045TI Ex proof Analyzer is available in a stainless-steel explosion-proof version for Zone I or Zone II according to the European explosive atmosphere directives (ATEX).
Standards for quality control
The importance of petroleum products is reflected by the large number of standards relating to them. Metrohm instruments comply with numerous petrochemical standards, which can be found within the three Petrochemical branch sites Petrochemicals.
Process Application Notes for the petrochemical industry
- Sour Water Stripper (SWS): Analysis of hydrogen sulfide and ammonia in Sour Water. ANPAN1001
- Desalting Crude Oil – Analysis of Salt in Crude Oil. ANPAN1014
- Mercaptans and Hydrogen Sulfide Derived from Crude Oil According to ASTM D3227 and UOP163. ANPAN1026
- Inhibiting Polymerization: Monitoring the Concentration of TBC in Styrene According to ASTM D4590. ANPAN1027
- ASTM D8045: Online measurement of the acid number (AN) in oils with thermometric titration. ANPAN1037
NIRS Applications for the petrochemical industry
NIR Spectroscopy can monitor many processes in the Petrochemical sector. Gasoline parameters measured with NIR cover research octane (RON, ASTM D2699), motor octane (MON, ASTM D2700), and road octane number (RdON), and volume percentage or even mole percent of individual components (paraffins, isoparaffins, aromatics, naphthenes, and olefins; PIANO). Common diesel parameters measured with NIR include specific gravity, viscosity, flash point, cold filter plugging point (CFPP), pour point, and cloud point. Also possible to monitor with NIRS: crude oil distillation, gasoline blend- ing, diesel blending, and biofuels blending (ethanol in gasoline, biodiesel).
Metrohm Process Analytics offers several analytical techniques in many different analyzer configurations for any need: titration, photometry, ion chromatography, NIR spectroscopy, and ion-selective measurements. Metrohm online process analysers and custom sample preconditioning systems are manufactured in the Netherlands and supported by MEP instruments service engineers nationwide.
