Charge-tagged reagents for the selective analysis of functionalized molecules in petroleum

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Even very small amounts of unwanted material in petroleum can cause odor, discoloration or refinery fouling. Such materials can occur naturally or as additives during processing, and knowing what they are is crucial to providing solutions. This proposal involves using charge-tagged compounds developed in the McIndoe lab and applying them to particular problems in this area experienced by Imperial Oil. The tagged materials are equipped with selectively reactive functional groups that will pluck out particular compounds of interest and "light them up" for mass spectrometric analysis. The approach can be likened to looking for a needle in a haystack, but where only the needles are visible - our task is hence correspondingly easier. Identification of contaminants will lead to measures taken to avoid their introduction or to design methods to remove naturally-occurring compounds during processing. Because of the scale of the oil industry, any such small improvements can lead to considerable savings and cleaner products.