Mobile Spectrometers are being used increasingly for infrastructure integrity testing in the process industries. Explosions, fires, and other incidents at oil refineries, petrochemical complexes, power plants, and similar installations receive widespread publicity, particularly when there is loss of life or personal injury. In many cases, these incidents are caused by the inappropriate presence or absence of a particular alloying element in a steel component. These elements are impossible to detect by physical inspection that’s why positive material identification (PMI) using portable or handheld XRF spectrometers is now accepted best practice in the process and equipment supply industries.
This new paper explains some of the increasingly complex analytical challenges that plant professionals face as they attempt to eliminate the use of inappropriate materials to prevent incidents caused by high temperature hydrogen attack (HTHA), flow accelerated corrosion (FAC), or sulfidation corrosion. The paper then assesses the improved analytical capabilities of some of the most advanced handheld and portable instruments that are now available and documents their capabilities with real world test results.
