Determination of arsenic in petroleum refinery streams by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry after multivariate optimization based on Doehlert design

This paper reports the development of a methodology for the determination of arsenic in petroleum refinery aqueous streams containing large amounts of unknown volatile organic compounds, employing electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry with polarized Zeeman-effect background correction. In order to make the procedure applicable, the influence of chemical modification and the drying step was examined. Also, pyrolysis and atomization temperatures and the amount of nitric acid added to the sample were optimized using a multivariate approach based on Doehlert matrix. Obtained results indicate that, in this kind of sample, arsenic must be determined by standard addition procedure with a careful control of the drying step temperature and ramp pattern. In order to evaluate the accuracy of the procedure, a test was performed in six spiked samples of petroleum refinery aqueous streams and the relative errors verified in the analysis of such samples (added As between 12.5 and 190 μg l⁻¹) ranged from −7.2 to +16.7%. The detection limit and the relative standard deviation were also calculated and the values are 68 pg and 7.5% (at 12.5 μg l⁻¹ level), respectively.     

Analysis of Petroleum Distillates from Fire Debris Using Supercritical Fluid Extraction with a Two‐Level Orthogonal Array Experimental Design

A supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) method was developed in the present study as an effective sample pretreatment technique of petroleum distillates from fire debris. Three petroleum distillates were used as target analytes, including 95 unleaded gasoline, kerosene, and premium diesel. An orthogonal array (L16) experimental design was adopted to separately evaluate primary SFE experimental factors. The SFE efficiencies of petroleum distillates at various extraction conditions were examined and the optimized SFE conditions were identified. Experimental results demonstrated that the optimized SFE method not only provided an effective extraction method for the spiked sample, but also successfully recovered residues of petroleum distillates from fire debris.     

Determination of Inorganic Ions in Fertilizer Industry Wastewater by Ion Chromatography

The aim of this work is development of methodology for analysis of inorganic cations (sodium, ammonium, potassium, magnesium and calcium) in fertilizer industry wastewater. Method development includes optimization of eluent flow rate and concentration of eluent competing ion in order to obtain optimal separation within reasonable analysis time. For that purpose artificial neural network retention model was developed and used in combination with normalized resolution product criteria function. Developed artificial neural network retention model shows good predictive ability R² ≥ 0.9983. The determined ion chromatographic parameters enable baseline separation of all components of interest. By performing validation procedure and number of statistical tests it is shown that developed ion chromatographic method has superior performance characteristic: linearity R² ≥ 0.9984, recovery = 99.81% − 99.44%, repeatability RSD ≤ 0.52%. That result proves that proposed method can be used for routine monitoring analysis in fertilizer industry.     

GC–MS analysis of phenolic compounds in fuels after conversion to trifluoroacetate esters

The GC–MS characteristics of trifluoroacetate esters of phenolic compounds are discussed. Linear temperature programmed retention indices and total ion current MS response factors of over 120 phenolic esters are reported. The main GC advantages from analysis of trifluoroacetate esters as compared to plain phenols are enhanced volatility and improved resolution. For example, the elution temperature of a given phenol is typically 50 °C greater than that of the corresponding trifluoroacetate ester. Also, while retention of compounds with two trifluoroacetate groups is only moderately greater than mono esters, underivatized dihydroxy compounds are very difficult to elute from any GC column. Complete resolution of isomeric C₀-, C₁- and C₂-alkylphenol esters is readily achieved on conventional fused silica GC columns; resolution of the corresponding underivatized compounds requires specialized GC columns with low temperature limits. In general, mass spectra of trifluoroacetate esters are more characteristic of a given structure than those of the corresponding phenols and may be more rigorously interpreted towards structural elucidation. A table in the report summarizes some of the more important spectral features used in compound identification. Example applications in analysis of coal-, shale- and petroleum-derived materials are presented. Selected ion monitoring is used to determine individual phenolic components in whole distillates; reconstructed ion chromatograms are used to illustrate distributions of selected species as a function of fuel storage and thermal stress.     

Applications of Thermal Analysis and Coupled Techniques in Pharmaceutical Industry

Thermal analysis methods are well-established techniques in research laboratories of pharmaceutical industry. The robustness and sensitivity of instrumentation, the introduction of automation and of reliable software according to the industrial needs widened considerably the areas of applications in the last decade. Calibration of instruments and validation of results follow the state of the art of cGMP as for other analytical techniques. Thermal analysis techniques are especially useful for the study of the behavior of the poly-phasic systems drug substances and excipients and find a unique place for new delivery systems. Since change of temperature and moisture occur by processing and storage, changes of the solid state may have a considerable effect on activity, toxicity and stability of compounds. Current requirements of the International Conference of Harmonisation for the characterization and the quantitation of polymorphism in new entities re-enforce the position of thermal analysis techniques. This challenging task needs the use of complementary methods. Combined techniques and microcalorimetry demonstrate their advantages. This article reviews the current use of thermal analysis and combined techniques in research and development and in production. The advantage of commercially coupled techniques to thermogravimetry is emphasized with some examples. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

基于灰色聚类分析的风险评价方法研究——以江苏民间资本进入金融领域风险评价为例

运用灰色系统理论,结合AHP方法,建立灰色聚类分析模型,对风险进行评价,并以江苏民间资本进入金融领域风险评价为例进行研究.结果表明,民间资本进入金融领域的风险属于高风险范畴,其中进入风险中的产业风险和社会风险属于高风险,信用风险属于较高风险,政治风险属于中等风险.并针对上述风险的等级,提出了相应的政策建议.模型具有一定的实用价值,它对于正确认识民间资本进入金融领域的风险和有针对性地制定相应的政策措施具有一定的理论和现实意义.     

Contributions to the Optimization of a Caprolactam Production Plant by Radiotracer Techniques

Residence time spectra and material distributions in an operating caprolactam production plant were measured by means of sodium 24, bromine 82 and technetium 99m. The results of the tracerexperiments contributed to an optimization of the plant.     

Electrochemical technologies for treating petroleum industry wastewater

This review focuses on recent developments in electrochemical technology (with special emphasis on electrocoagulation, electro-oxidation, and electro-Fenton) to treat petroleum industry effluents (offshore and hydraulic fracturing extraction, as well as refinery effluents). In addition, an overview is given of what these processes face to position themselves as consolidated technologies.     

Towards a comprehensive exploitation of agrofood residues: Olive tree – olive oil as example

A comprehensive use of residues from the agrofood industry requires development of a number of steps – discussed in this article taking as a model the olive tree – olive oil binomial – consisting of: (i) extraction, identification and quantitation of valuable products (with isolation of individual compounds, if required); (ii) assessment of beneficial effects (which could be made mainly through metabolomics); (iii) improvement of cultivation varieties (through cross-breeding or other agricultural resources); (iv) commercialization as nutraceuticals, food supplements, pharmaceuticals or even as antibacterial and antifoam agents in water treatment plants; (v) use of the final residues to produce compost, foodstuffs, biogas or heat (after checking the characteristics of these residues which can be very different from those of the original residue). This working scheme may be applied to any other system to break the traditional one cultivation–one commercial product scheme.