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NIR spectroscopy in the petrochemical and refinery industry: The ASTM compliant tool for QC and product screening – Part 5

Jan 24, 2022

Article

This article is Part 5 of a series.

History of ASTM International

The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) is an organization that currently provides over 12,500 international standards. Its roots date back to 1898, when ASTM was formed by a group of scientists and engineers to address the frequent rail breaks affecting the fast-growing railroad industry. The group developed a standard for the steel used to fabricate rails.

Originally, this organization was called the «American Society for Testing Materials» (1902) and was changed to the «American Society for Testing and Materials» in 1961. In 2001, ASTM officially changed its name to «ASTM International» and added the tagline «Standards Worldwide». This tagline was modified in 2014 to «Helping our world work better». Now, aside from the US, ASTM International also has offices in Belgium, Canada, China, and Peru.

https://metrohm.scene7.com/is/image/metrohm/astm_international_logo-800px?ts=1705566896669&dpr=off

ASTM International aims to ensure that quality and standard requirements are met when using materials for engineering projects. Therefore, they had to agree upon a single language for engineers and technicians to enhance compatibility, and ultimately developed a system grouped according to industries in the form of letters A–G. Currently, there are over 12,500 ASTM standards used by about 150 countries. This has increased trade in different markets by instilling and strengthening consumer confidence.

ASTM Committee D02 on Petroleum Products, Liquid Fuels, and Lubricants

Formed in 1904, ASTM Committee D02 currently meets twice per year for five days of technical meetings, attended by approximately 1000 members (out of around 2500). D02 has jurisdiction over 814 standards with a prominent role in all aspects relating to the standardization of petroleum products and lubricants, which are published in the Annual Book of ASTM Standards (Volumes 05.01 through 05.06).
 

Near-infrared spectroscopy—an ASTM compliant tool to assess the quality of petrochemical products

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has been an established method for fast and reliable quality control within the petrochemical industry for more than 30 years. However, many companies still do not consistently consider the implementation of NIRS in their QA/QC labs. The reasons could be either limited experience regarding application possibilities or a general hesitation about implementing NIRS as an alternative technology.

Many companies are not aware that now there are many ASTM standards about how to implement NIR spectroscopy as an alternative to conventional methods. Several NIRS-related ASTM guidelines are shown in Figure 1.

ASTM E1655 (method development quantitative NIR analysis) and ASTM E1790 (method development qualitative NIR analysis) are applicable for all industries (e.g., polymer, chemical, petrochemical, etc.).

ASTM D6122 (method validation), ASTM D8321 (development and validation of multivariate analysis), and ASTM D8340 (performance qualification) are dedicated for the petrochemical industry. These three standards were released recently in 2020, and ASTM D8340 was updated at the end of 2021.