Advances in Fuels and Petrochemical Analysis II

This afternoon session is a continuation of today’s morning session 1010 “Advances in Fuels and Petrochemical Analysis I”. Eugene Barry of the University of Massachusetts Lowell will be presiding.

The first presentation "Evaluation of Carbonic Acid Hydrolysis for Algal Biomass Fermentation and the Production of Ethanol" will be given by Paul K. Nam of Missouri University of Science & Technology in Rolla, Missouri. Nam's team investigated the carbonic acid treatment as an alternative to commonly used mineral acid treatments.

Following Nam, will be Terry Lr. Amus of Diablo Analytical, Inc. (Antioch, California), with a presentation titled "Application of GC-IRD and Analytical Pyrolysis to the Characterization of Source Materials for Biofuels". Amus' will discuss the use of high temperature pyrolysis inlets to carefully convert complex source material into compatible components for further analysis by GC.

Next, "Sampling and Analysis of Biomass Pyrolysis Effluent by Gas Chromatography" will highlight sample system design, chromatograms, and data by Brice Van Der Volgen of Wasson-ECE Instrumentation (Fort Collins, Colorado). In order to achieve mass balance across the pyrolysis reactor, researchers must be able to accurately quantify hydrogen, the permanent gases, hydrocarbons, water, oxygenates, nitrogenates, and sulfurs. In order to perform this analysis, a specialized sampling system was designed.

James J. Harynuk of the University of Alberta will give a presentation entitled "Analysis of Trace Alkyl Phosphates in Petroleum Samples by GCxGC-NPD". The use of alkyl phosphate-based additives during crude oil recovery processes and the subsequent contamination of the produced oil has led to an increased interest for their analysis. This work represents a significant step towards a routine, robust method for analyzing these samples in a production environment.

Following a brief recess, Debbie Hutt of INFICON, Inc. will present"Detection and Quantification of Tert-Butyl Mercaptan (TBM) Odorant in aNatural Gas Matrix Using a Transportable Micro Gas Chromatography Systemwith a Thermal Conductivity Detector". This work will address the requirement to detect and monitor the amount of odorant present in natural gas pipelines by natural gas suppliers and operators and present an instrument that can easily be configured for field applications.

Terry L. Ramus will give a second presentation on "Rapid Process and Materials Characterization with a Two-Stage High Pressure Pyrolysis System with Analysis by GC-MS". The system used in these experiments allows rapid screening of a wide variety of process conditions.

"Chromatographic Behavior of a New Generation of Activated AluminaAdsorbents for the Analysis of Hydrocarbons and Halogenated Compounds" will be presented next by Jaap De Zeeuw of Restek Corporation (Bellefonte, Pennsylvania). This presentation will investigate new Alumina PLOT column adsorbents with respect to thermal stability, inertness and selective retention. Applications will be shown illustrating their performance in the analysis of chlorofluorocarbons and difficult to analyze reactive hydrocarbons.

This session will come to a close with the final presentation given by David Joseph Cuthbert of Wasson-ECE Instrumentation titled "Sampling and Analysis of High Purity Silane by Gas Chromatography," which will address the challenges associated with high purity silane gas in sampling and discuss the analysis of common impurities by gas chromatography.