Method for analysis and detection of solids in emulsions, oil and derivatives thereof

A method for analysis and detection of solids in emulsions, oil and derivatives thereof, comprising the following steps:

• (a) homogenizing an emulsion or oil sample for one minute under strong manual agitation;
• (b) transferring part of the emulsion or oil sample to a wide mouth flask and, with a syringe, transferring from 0.5 to 5 mL to a volumetric flask;
• (c) transferring a binary mixture of solvents X comprising an aromatic solvent comprising toluene, p-xylene, o-xylene, xylenes, or combinations thereof and an oxygenate of a glycol class comprising ethylene glycol, butyl glycol, or combinations thereof into the volumetric flask, wherein the added volume of solvent mixture X is 60% of the capacity of the volumetric flask;
• (d) manually agitating the resulting mixture Y for 1 minute and placing the same in an ultrasound system for 10 minutes;
• (e) allowing the mixture Y to stand until it reaches room temperature;
• (f) filling up the volumetric flask containing the mixture Y with the mixture of solvents X and performing its homogenization;
• (g) taking an aliquot of the mixture Y to read absorbance in a photometer, using a measuring cell or cuvette;
• (h) taking the absorbance reading at a defined wavelength in an ultraviolet-visible region, using the solvent mixture X as a blank for the absorbance reading;
• (i) taking a new aliquot of the mixture Y with a syringe to perform its filtration;
• (j) attaching a disposable filter to the syringe containing the mixture Y and proceeding to filtration with the collection of the filtered solution Z, in which the volume is enough to fill the measuring cell or cuvette used for absorbance reading;
• (k) performing the absorbance reading of the filtered solution Z under the same conditions and in the same photometer used for the analysis of the mixture Y;
• (l) determining solids content from a calibration curve, through a difference of the absorbance of the mixture Y minus that of the filtered solution Z, which corresponds to the absorbance delta (Δ Abs);
• and
• (m) determining a concentration of solids in the mixture Y and calculate the solids content in the emulsion or oil sample from a dilution factor of the mixture Y.