5.1 The chemical composition of catalyst and catalyst materials is an important indicator of catalyst performance and is a valuable tool for assessing parameters in a FCCU process. This practice will be useful to catalyst manufacturers and petroleum refiners for quality verification and performance evaluation, and to environmental authorities at the state and federal levels for evaluation and verification of various compliance programs.3^, 4^, 5

5.2 Catalysts and catalyst type materials are difficult to prepare for analysis by ICP, and although the techniques presented in this practice are common, there is wide variation among laboratories in sample pretreatment and digestion recipes. This practice is intended to standardize these variables in order to facilitate the utility of comparative data among manufacturers, refiners, and regulatory agencies.

1.1 This practice covers uniform dissolution techniques for preparing samples of fluid catalytic cracking catalysts (FCC) and exchanged zeolitic materials for analysis by Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES). These techniques describe standardized approaches to well-known, widely used laboratory practices of sample preparation utilizing acid digestions and borate salt fusions. This practice is applicable to fresh and equilibrium FCC catalysts and exchanged zeolite materials.

1.2 The values stated in SI units are to be regarded as standard. No other units of measurement are included in this standard.

1.3 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.