CONTACT: Dr. Alan Marshall(850) 644-0529
FSU Media Relations OfficeBarrett Hathcock850-644-4030[email protected]
By Frank StephensonJanuary 17, 2001
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OIL COMPANIES TURN TO FSU SCIENTIST TO MEET MANDATE TO LOWER SULFUR CONTENT IN DIESEL FUEL
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.-If oil companies have any hope of meeting tough new federal standards for cleaner-burning gasoline and diesel fuel, they will need to find faster and better ways to identify pollutants in crude oil, says a leading developer of super-fine analytical tools for assessing pollutants in oil and other complex compounds.
In December, President Clinton signed off on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's call for new limits on the amounts of sulfur and nitrogen pollutants in exhaust from truck and bus engines. The measures call for a 97 percent reduction in sulfur by 2010.
When released through burning, sulfur - a natural ingredient of crude oil - forms sulfur dioxide gas and other airborne pollutants that contribute to respiratory and other health problems and form the largest component of acid rain, an environmental contaminant that spans the globe. Sulfur also acts as a poison that destroys the chemical processes in air pollution control devices found on most cars.
Identifying sulfur- and nitrogen-containing compounds in crude oil is the first step in getting rid of them, says Alan Marshall, an analytical chemist at Florida State University.
"Since a typical sample of crude oil can contain more than 1,000 sulfur-containing compounds, this is no small task," he said. "What we've been able to do here is build the fastest, most accurate technique in the world to identify these compounds."
Marshall is a co-inventor of a technique that turns an analytical tool introduced in the 1930s into what he says is the world's most powerful method for detecting what kinds of compounds lie hidden in complex mixtures.
"There are at least 10,000 different compounds in a typical sample of crude oil, and sorting them all out is ordinarily a very tedious, time-consuming process," Marshall said. "Our technique can identify 3,000 or more in a single step. No other lab in the world has been able to do that."
Marshall's lab, based at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at FSU, specializes in developing the power of an analytical technique called ion cyclotron resonance mass spectroscopy, or ICR. Invented in the mid-1930s, the technique bombards gaseous forms of compounds trapped in a magnetic field with radio signals that act as electronic probes to identify them.
In 1973 Marshall and collaborator Melvin Comisarow of the University of British Columbia developed a technique that dramatically boosted ICR's speed, power and versatility. Today, Marshall said that his and Comisarow's design are in use in more than 300 ICR labs operating around the world. But none of these labs are as powerful or as versatile as his at FSU, he said.
What makes Marshall's lab unique is its access to large magnets, plus a sophisticated array of front-end technology that he and his colleagues have developed since 1993 when he began his research at FSU.
"Almost every shipment of crude oil to this country has a different mixture of compounds," said Marshall. "Our technique is the best way, and possibly the only way, for oil companies to determine precisely what they have. Only then can they develop the best methods for removing sulfur and other pollutants."
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