Preparing Samples from the Petrochemical Industry for Subsequent Determination of (Trace) Elemental Concentrations

High Pressure Asher HPA-S from Anton Paar (Austria) is the reference instrument for wet-chemical acid digestion. It fulfills ASTM C1234-11 (Standard practice for the preparation of oils and oily waste samples by high pressure, high temperature digestion for trace element determination).

HPA-S safely and reproducibly decomposes samples of up to 1.5 grams in hermetically sealed reaction vessels. Uniform heating and exact temperature control up to 320°C at a pressure of 130 bar ensures the total mineralisation of challenging samples. Applying such high temperatures and pressures makes HPA-S a unique troubleshooter for difficult organic and inorganic samples in routine analysis as well as in R&D applications.

The Multiwave PRO microwave reaction system is designed to achieve the maximum productivity and highest decomposition quality by achieving reaction conditions of up to 300°C and 80 bar simultaneously. Microwave heating allows digestions in a fraction of the time required by conventional techniques. The application library of Multiwave PRO contains numerous methods for petroleum-related samples. Amongst others the instrument fulfills the requirements of EPA Method 3052 (Microwave-assisted acid digestion of siliceous and organically based matrices).

Using Multiwave PRO, matrix interferences which can arise in subsequent measuring methods like ICP-MS or AAS are a thing of the past. Microwave-induced oxygen combustion, a special application in Multiwave PRO, supports the measurement of halogens from petrochemical samples.