Sulphur content estimation of Venezuelan heavy oil by fast neutron and gamma transmission technique

A compact and modern equipment for implementing the fast neutron and γ-ray transmission technique (FNGT) has been developed in order to estimate the sulphur content of crude oil. FNGT is employed for non- destructive analysis of different kinds of samples. The compact system presented in this work represents an improvement of our previous experimental set-up [1, 2]. It makes use of a 252Cf source, an EJ-301 liquid scintillator detector (2″ × 2″) with excellent n/γ discrimination capabilities, and modern nuclear electronics based on fast digitizers. The fast neutron and gamma transmission technique was employed to study a system for on-line sulphur concentration measurement in Venezuelan heavy sour oil. The range of sulphur concentrations investigated is between 0.1 and 6.5 wt%. The equipment performances and limitations are compared with those predicted by a Monte Carlo model built in GEANT4 v10.01. The results show the possibility to implement a compact unit for on-line determination of sulphur concentration in crude oil.