Industrial applications of near infra-red spectroscopy: Quality evaluationof naphtha feed for olefin production

In an attempt to develop an alternative,fast, simple and direct method for the measurements of various properties of naphtha, we report a method based on near infra-red (NIR) spectroscopy. The required parameters for quality evaluation of such feed include mainly aromatics, naphthenes (C-6-, i.e., c omponents having carbon number 6 and below and C-7+, i.e., those with carbo n number 7 and above), paraffins (C-6- and C-7+) and methylcyclohexane The results obtained by the NIR method show an excellent agreement with the cur rently accepted standard gas chromatography (GC) method.