Sulphur Analyzer WILPO LS 111

APPLICATION AREA

The WILPO LS 111 X-ray fluorescent sulphur analyzer is designed for fast determination of total sulphur in samples of coal (as received – wet). It enables rapid and relatively accurate measurement of sulphur content in coal owing to the speeding up of coal sample preparation and elimination of the steps of sample drying and size reduction.

OPERATION PRINCIPLE

Measurements made with WILPO LS 111 are based on (XRF method) the excitation of fluorescence radiation, which is characteristic of a given chemical element, and on the evaluation of the concentration of that element in the sample by determining the intensity of the characteristic X-ray K series spectral lines.

In the case of sulphur determination the energy of the excited characteristic fluorescence radiation (K-line) is as low as 2.31 keV, which implies the need to use sources of excitation radiation of very low quantum energy, as close as possible to the mentioned value.

Construction

The design of WILPO LS 111 results both from the adopted measurement method and from the desired features of the instrument, including fast presentation of measurement result. The measuring setup is made up of three stands: the crusher stand, the standardized compacting stand and the measuring stand.

• CRUSHER STAND – A laboratory hammer crusher of special design enables quick coal particle size reduction from 50 mm down to 1 mm
• STANDARDIZED COMPACTING STAND – The crushed coal sample is transferred in a reproducible and semiautomatic manner to a measuring cell where the top surface of the sample is made perfectly flat.
• MEASURING STAND – Comprises the basic measuring system with radiation source, detector unit, power supplies and spectrum forming unit. The stand includes a computer with dedicated software and controller, and a display and keyboard that enable controlling the measuring procedure.

KEY FUNCTIONALITIES AND SPECIFICATIONS

• direct, atomic, measurement of total sulfur in the working state in coal samples (without drying),
• low-energy, safe source of excitation radiation,
• high-class detector of characteristic fluorescent radiation,
• time to obtain result: approx. 9 min. !
  including:
  – sample degradation time at the crushing station /to grain – 1.25 mm/: 60 s
  – sample filling time at the packing standardization station: 180 s
  – measurement time: 300 s
• sample weight: approx. 90 g
• measurement accuracy: 
  – for sulfur content range 0 – 2%    0,025 ≤ σ ≤ 0,06 % 
  – for sulfur content range 2 – 5%    0,05 ≤ σ ≤ 0,10 %
• optional determination of other elements, e.g. Ca, in the same sample