Multidimensional gas chromatographic determination of paraffins, olefins and aromatics in naphthas.

In order to cope with the increasing demand for gasoline and the need to reduce environmental impact for sustainable development, refineries have installed refining technology by introducing cracking, reforming, isomerization and alkylation. The standard EN 228: 2004 outlines the specification that gasoline, deriving from the blend of several fractions, must have for use in modem piston engines. Naphtha is one of the products from distilling crude oil that can be used as starting material in the reforming process whose derivatives, which are a fraction of gasoline, depend on the composition of the naphtha. Knowledge of the naphtha composition thus enables to provide the final composition of the products of reforming, the efficiency of the plant and also provides information about the crude oil used. In this paper some naphtha samples were analysed by multidimensional gas chromatography. This technique allows in a single analysis a good separation of the hydrocarbon types and within each hydrocarbon type a good carbon number separation.