Isolation and characterization of the saturate and aromatic fractions of aMaya crude oil

Group separation of Maya crude oil was achieved by the saturates-aromatics- resins-asphaltenes (SARA) method. The sulfur-containing compounds in the sa turate and aromatic fractions were then separated using a ligand exchange c hromatography method based on organosulfur affinity for Cu2+ and Pd2+, resp ectively. The separation into group types is effective asa prelude to the s tructural characterization of crude oil fractions using elemental analysis, Fourier transform infrared, and both H-1 and C-13 nuclear magnetic resonan ce spectroscopy. In addition, gel permeation chromatography was compared wi th atmospheric pressure chemical ionization/mass spectrometry (APCI/MS) in order to determine whether the APCI/MS method could provide a rapid means f or the determination of the average molar mass.