New range of sulphur in fuel standards

We are all aware of the contribution that sulphur makes to atmospheric pollution and acid rain, and low sulphur fuels are a familiar feature of forecourt advertising.

But what exactly is low sulphur? The current limits set by European Union Directives for sulphur in petrol and diesel fuels are 150 and 350mg per kg, respectively, and will be reduced to 50mg per kg for both fuels by 2005.

The Directives also require fuels with maximum sulphur concentration of 10mg per kg to be available on the market by 2005 and this lower concentration will become mandatory by 2009. It will be the responsibility of the oil industry to ensure that these new standards are met.

LGC Promochem, the supplier of certified reference materials, is announcing the introduction of a new range of sulphur in fuel standards developed by LGC at its UK Chemical Calibration Facility - LGC Promochem is part of the LGC group of companies.

The new reference materials are designed to help laboratories to develop and validate reliable analytical procedures to measure sulphur in fuels at low concentration.

The first standard is a diesel fuel containing sulphur at 50mg per kg.

A reference material for sulphur in diesel at 10mg per kg is in the process of being certified and is due to be released for sale later in 2004.

LGC is currently developing reference materials for sulphur in petrol, which will again be available through LGC Promochem.

The diesel reference materials are packaged in 100ml glass bottles with tamper-evident tops, each accompanied by a detailed certificate of analysis.

Certification of these sulphur in fuel materials is carried out at LGC's laboratory using closed vessel microwave digestion followed by high accuracy exact matching isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS).

Production of these materials was supported by the Department of Trade and Industry as part of the National Measurement System Valid Analytical Measurement Programme.