ARL OPTIMX Powder

Where speed of sulfur analysis and ease of use form a perfect solution.

"For OGC, it is imperative to have an analytical instrument that measures sulfur at ultra-low concentrations in a wide range of fuels with high accuracy within a few minutes..."
Erwin V. at SGS Oil, Gas & Chemical laboratory (OGC)

SGS Group is the globally recognized leader in providing inspection, verification, testing and certification services for a wide variety of industries. Founded in 1878, SGS has a long-standing international reputation for innovation, quality and integrity. With more then 55,000 employees, SGS operates a network of over 1,000 offices and laboratories around the world.

The SGS Oil, Gas & Chemicals laboratory (OGC) located in Antwerp harbor, Belgium is one of the largest contract laboratories in the world specializing in analysis of all manner of light and heavy fuels, lubricating oils, biofuels, chemicals, additives and industrial gases. Operating 24 hours per day 7 days per week, the OGC Antwerp lab not only manages a large daily sample turnover but also reports results directly and rapidly to terminals and customers

One of OGC’s main daily concerns is analyzing sulfur concentrations in fuels in compliance with various international standard methods such as ISO 20884, ISO 14596 and ASTM D 2622. Due to increased worldwide environmental regulations related to greenhouse emissions, sulfur analysis demands have recently increased dramatically. Based on the 2009 Euro 5 standard, maximum sulfur content in regular diesel, biodiesel and gasoline is 10 ppm.

Ease of use

For OGC, it is imperative to have an analytical instrument that can measure sulfur at ultra-low concentrations in a wide range of fuels with high accuracy within a few minutes.

The Thermo Scientific™ ARL OPTIM'X™ Analyzer satisfied these requirements in combination with extreme ease of use. For most measurements, no sample preparation is required as with other analytical techniques, so operators come up to speed with very little training necessary.

Daily analyses are simple: an operator fills the sample cup, places it in the sample holder, selects the required method and presses start. Results are ready in three minutes and the cup is disposed of. As OGC analyst Erwin V. said, “Now everybody who reads this description can use the ARL OPTIM’X."

“One of the reasons we chose a system from Thermo Fisher Scientific is that—besides the fact that this company is well known in the petroleum industry — we’ve had very good experiences in maintenance and support from them.”

Reliability