The presence of nitrogen compounds in crude oil, even at low concentration can poison the catalysts used in the fuel refinery processes (i.e. hydro-desulfurization, hydro-aromatization, hydro-cracking and reforming). The identification of non-basic nitrogen compounds (such as indole, carbazole) in petroleum crude oil is a great challenge for the oil industry. Gas chromatography or high performance liquid chromatography electrospray ionization combined with mass spectrometry (GC-MS or HPLC-MS) are the most widely adopted methods for ex-situ quantification of petroleum oil compounds. Although highly sensitive and specific, these methods are time consuming; more significantly, samples need to be taken to the laboratory for analysis.Here, we show that ambient ionization can easily be used as a rapid and robust method for in situ analysis of petroleum oil components and other related products. Desorption atmospheric pressure chemical ionization is one of the newly developed ambient ionization mass spectrometry methods - the experiment in which ionization is performed on unmodified samples in air - is capable of providing almost instantaneous data while minimizing sample preparation.

Ambient analysis of nitrogen compounds in petroleum oil using desorption atmospheric pressure chemical ionization

248th National Meeting (2014)

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