Pyritic Sulphur and Organic Sulphur Quantification in Organic Rich Sediments Using Rock-Eval

An advanced method for pyritic and organic sulphur quantification in organic rich sediments was developed using a Rock-Eval which was designed for sulphur quantification in addition to carbon quantification (Rock-Eval S). This new method involves data processing of parameters obtained via Rock-Eval S analysis of rock samples. It was applied to sedimentary mixtures with known organic and pyritic sulphur contents. The results show that this method allows an accurate quantification of both pyritic and organic sulphur in organic rich sediments that do not contain sulphates. This new method provides important analytical advantages, including (i) rapid analysis time (2 hours per sample); (ii) no chemical preparation steps, which are laborious and hazardous due to the use of strong acids; (iii) automatic analysis; and (iv) simultaneous quantification of organic/inorganic carbon and organic/inorganic sulphur in a single run.