Elemental analysis in the petroleum industry has become of major importance due to the impact metals, and non-metals have on the whole value chain of the business. By knowing the trace metals present in petroleum feeds, this could be useful information to establish the relationship between its formation in reservoirs and its refinement into different products. Additionally, the relevance of the data provided by this type of analysis has become a routine practice in the oil industry. Therefore, most of the methods reported so far are accomplished by spectroscopic methods after sample dissolution. For petroleum feeds and products, different approaches for sample preparation are commonly used as standard methods. Conventional wet acid digestion methods (hot block or Microwave, (MW)) assisted) are no doubt the most common choice today for performing trace element analysis of hydrocarbons on ICP based techniques. With the advances on MW systems used for acid digestions (sequential systems, multimode and single reaction chamber technology) in combination with a better understanding of the chemistry associated with the digestion process, the use of diluted acids in combination with oxidizing reagents, has been reported as a green approach to digest different materials. The present work will illustrate how this greener approach can be applied to a refractory petroleum sample that requires a mixture of concentrated acids s in combination with high temperature and pressure to ensure complete digestion. Effect of acid concentration, H2O2 as an oxygen source, MW temperature, pressure, and residence time were evaluated during the sample preparation. Finally, several elements were analyzed by ICP-OES whose recoveries using a lube oil SRM will be presented.

Towards a greener approach for microwave assisted acid digestion of refractory petroleum crude samples using a singler eaction chamber system followed by ICP techniques

2019 Spring National Meeting

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