Critical Review on the Analytical Methods for the Determination of Sulfur and Trace Elements in Crude Oil

Determination of sulfur and deleterious trace elements in crude oil has long been an area of active investigation and still attracting interest due to their undesirable economic consequences and adverse environmental impacts. Therefore, analytical methods devoted to their sensitive, rapid, and accurate determination are of paramount importance in various areas of oil refining and petrochemical industry. In the present review, occurrence and implications of the main metallic constituents in crude oil are summarized. Furthermore, currently available methodological approaches including sample pretreatment procedures along with the most commonly used measurement techniques employed for crude oil analysis are overviewed. A summary of the applications and recent developments over the past years is discussed. The basic principle, pros and cons of each analytical method are highlighted. The overview is based on 172 references.