Literature Seminar Abstract
Petroleum production is a multibillion dollar global industry producing over nine million barrels of oil a day. All unrefined petroleum contains sulfur which when combusted forms acid rain and smog producing SOx. Complete sulfur removal during refining is challenging due to refractory molecular structures and difficulties in their characterization. Characterization would allow development of more efficient removal methods, producing cleaner finished fuel. Electrospray ionization coupled with high resolution mass spectrometry can provide mass data for hydrocarbons in crude oil but poorly ionizes most sulfur compounds. Improved ionization of sulfur containing compounds using dopants will be discussed and silver as a dopant for sulfur will be evaluated in several crude oils through mass spectrometry data. The use of dopants provides an alternative method for characterizing refractory compounds in crude oil samples.
