Determination of Naphthenic Acid Number in Petroleum Crude Oils and Their Fractions by Mid-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy

Naphthenic acid is a generic name used for all the organic acids present in crude oils. The quantitative determination of naphthenic acid number (NAN) is an essential parameter for petroleum refineries to evaluate corrosive properties of crude oils prior to their processing. Currently, most of the refineries are using total acid number (TAN) as a measure of corrosivity of crudes during their selection, valuation, and processing. Some of the organic molecules are being used as corrosion inhibitors to reduce corrosion in refinery process units, and the dosage of the same depends on the total acid number as it has been understood from the studies that acid inhibitors form a protective layer on the surface of the pipes and thus reduces the corrosion due to acids present in crude oil. TAN measurement by titration overestimates the acid number as each and every molecule like thiols and phenols etc. that are titratable by alkali are also included in the calculation and that causes the improper estimation of the ...