Determination of Sulfur in Biodiesel and Petroleum Diesel by X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) Using the Gravimetric Standard Addition Method-II

摘要

Sulfur in petroleum diesel is typically detected by wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry by comparing the response of the unknown to a linear calibration curve composed of a series of matrix-identical standards. Because biodiesel contains about 11% oxygen by mass and diesel is oxygen-free, the determination of sulfur in biodiesel using petroleum diesel calibrants is predicted to be biased ～ -16% due to oxygen absorptive attenuation of the X-ray signal. A gravimetric standard addition method (SAM) was hypothesized to overcome this bias because it should be matrix-independent. Samples of both petroleum diesel (SRM 2723a and European Reference Material EF674a) and biodiesel (candidate SRM 2773, NREL 52537, and NREL 52533) were analyzed, comparing the traditional calibration curve method to the gravimetric SAM approach. As expected, no significant difference was found between the two methods when measuring sulfur in petroleum diesel. Sulfur determinations in biodiesel with petroleum diesel calibrants were lower by ~19% relative to the gravimetric SAM at the 3, 7, and 12 μg/g levels. It is concluded that XRF using gravimetric SAM yields accurate sulfur measurements in biodiesel samples. In addition, the gravimetric SAM approach is insensitive to differences in the C/H ratio.