The role of gas chromatography in compositional analyses in the petroleum industry

Because of the complex character of petroleum fractions and products, gas c hromatography has played an important role as an analytical technique in th is area since its introduction. For the majority of oil fractions classifyi ng or group-type analyses are performed rather than determinations of all t he individual constituents, The general composition of petroleum is discuss ed and also the relation between composition, product properties and proces sability, Compositional analyses for petroleum products are reviewed, espec ially in terms of multi-dimensional gas chromatography. The important role that comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography is expected to play i n the near Future in unraveling the composition of oil fractions is also di scussed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.