2025-10-09
GC-SCD for Petroleum Products: Comparison of Commercially Available Sulfur Chemiluminescence Detectors by ASTM D5623
Analysis of sulfur in petroleum products is critical to help prevent corrosion, reduce catalytic reactions, and mitigate SO2 pollution. Gas Chromatography with Sulfur Chemiluminescence Detection (GC-SCD) per ASTM D5623 provides advantages of sensitivity, equimolarity, and speciation over other methods such as EDXRF per ASTM D4294. However, GC-SCD systems can present challenges with complexity and maintenance costs. In this presentation, Alan Cummings of LUMMUS Technology will present theory on sulfur chemiluminescence as well as data collected over a period of several years comparing three commercially available GC-SCD systems for sensitivity and robustness. His research has resulted in optimized GC-SCD system configurations which produce maximize productivity and reliability.