Petroleum

Abstract

PETROLEUM HARRY LEVINThe Texas Co., Beacon, 1%' . Y d C A S be seen in the four previous annual reviews and gener-A ally in the field of analytical chemistry, the adaptation of instrumental methods to the solution of various problems continues t o be the major trend in the analytical phase of petroleum technologr. This is apparent again in the following review, which covers the literature for a period of one year from that covered in the previous reviex (98). CRUDE OIL.4n apparatus and procedure for determining water in wateroil emulsions, based on their dielectric constants, were described by Robinson and Ebertz (137). Schuldiner (147) established the source of harbor pollution from the contour and fluorescence of the spots formed in paper chromatography of crude oil and its products. Lockwood et al. (101) assayed crude oil in new e q u i p ment comprising a spinning band column for atmospheric and vacuum distillations, a spinning auger still for molecular distillation, and a n all-glass equilibrium flash vaporization unit. A laboratory recirculating equilibrium still for flash vaporization of petroleum crude oil or its fractions was described by Othnier et al. (120), who evaluated its characteristics at and below atmospheric pressure and temperatures to 357 ' C. 4 5Hall (57) determined dissolved oxygen in petroleum fractions polarographically by measuring the diffusion current at -1.6 volts; the precision was &2 mg. per liter of sample in an elapsed time of 15 minutes. Luft (102) determined the oxygen content of gases by passing them through tubes kept in magnetic fields of different intensities, voltage being proportional t o the oxygen concentration of the sample. Cipriano and Riggs (23) determined oxygen in flue gas from a catalytic cracking unit regenerator, by instrumentation employing the paramagnetic properties of oxygen for the measurement. MeArthur (105) determined low concentrations of oxygen in gases by the change in chromous ion concentration of dilute solutions of chromous chloride through which measured volumes of gas sample were passed. Taylor and .4lexander (16%) compared the results for oxygen in buta-

Review - Petroleum

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The Texas Co., Beacon, N. Y. THE following review of advances in analysis in the field of petroleum covers the literature from the previous review (105) until approximately the middle of 1954. CRUDE OIL Karr, Weatherford, and Capell (91) demonstrated that undiluted crude oil can be chromatographically fractionated on activated alumina or activated bauxite, obtaining fractions which are sulfur concentrates, sulfurand metal-free paraffins, paraffinsnaphthene mixtures, aromatics, and an asphaltic fraction in which the vanadium content was concentrated twenty-fold.Pentane, benzene, and alcohol-benzene (1 to 3) were used as eluents.

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