The oxidation of sulphur compounds upon burning emits large quantities of SOx into the atmosphere. Therefore, there is growing interest in fast and accurate methods for analyzing sulphur content in fuels. The objective of this work was to compare four different methods of total sulphur determination in solid fuels. The methods used in this work were Eschka, Infrared, Thermal Conductivity Detection (TCD) and Ultraviolet Fluorescence Detection (UV). The preliminary results showed that TCD and UV methods (nonstandard methods for solid fuels) have similar precision to the infrared method (standard method) for high-sulphur coal samples.

Values of repeatability (r) and reproducibility (R) are parameters of an analytical method. They are related to the maximum difference between two results of analysis (permissible range) and can be obtained by interlaboratorial comparisons. They represent great importance for the quality control of the results and decisions about the fitness-for-purpose of the method. Water determination in fuel oil samples were performed by 16 laboratories, using the Karl Fischer reaction, during the period from June 1997 to December 1999. Values of r and R were presented. Discussion is made in terms of the main factors that would be contribution to analytical method variabilities and uncertainties of final results.