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Our work includes a critical analysis of current knowledge about the use of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in the analysis of group-type composition of petroleum products of different volatility and the possibilities of HPLC employment for technical and process analysis in the petrochemical-refining industry and related industries. Aside from volatility of petroleum products, the information about group-type composition is of some importance in the processing and refining of petroleum; quality control of fuels, oils, and other petroleum products; and for determination of sources of environmental pollution. It is important to obtain precise and exact information about the greatest number of possible hydrocarbons groups in the investigated petroleum material. We have reviewed and scrutinized both the standardized methods of determination of the group-type composition of petroleum products of different volatility and those described in the scientific literature. The methods employing a normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatography technique (NP-HPLC), which is particularly useful for group-type separation, make up the vast majority. Based not only on the literature data but also on our own research, we should state that together with increase of range of both a boiling point of petroleum material and degree of refining a possibility of group-type separation becomes more difficult, and all the more our knowledge about a field of control of the group-type separation of petroleum products by means of HPLC is unsatisfying. We also have referred to results of our own research, the aim of which was to elaborate the new selective conditions of group-type separation of petroleum products of different volatility by means of the HPLC multicolumn distribution systems, when evaluating that they introduce an essential progress to the knowledge about a field of control of the analytic problems being a subject of the present review work.
The Department of Analytical Chemistry constitutes the Centre of Excellence in Environmental Analysis and Monitoring, which is a research project supported by the European Commission under the Fifth Framework Program and contributing to the implementation of the Key Action Sustainable Management and Quality of Water within the Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development (Contract no. EVK1-CT-2002-80010). The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the State Committee for Scientific Research, Warsaw, Poland (Contract no. 3 T09B 094 26).
Rafal Kartanowicz is currently holding a postdoctoral position at the National Center for Plant and Microbial Metabolomics, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, England.
Notes
*Packing of this type is not commercially available.
*A1 − 6, number of aromatic rings in molecule.
**N1 − 6, number of cyclic rings in molecule.