New technique to analyse oxygenated and aromatic compounds in gasoline using a single gas chromatograph will save petroleum labs time and money
Agilent Technologies Europe has announced a gas chromatography (GC) configuration that can separate oxygenated and aromatic compounds from gasoline's complex hydrocarbon matrix using a single GC.
Up to now, complete analysis of gasoline samples had required three separate runs on two different GCs to perform the applicable American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) methods D4815 and D5580.
These ASTM methods are widely used in the petroleum industry to analyse gasoline for regulatory compliance and QA/QC.
D4815 is a GC method for the determination of ethers such as methyl tert-butylether (MTBE), and alcohols. D5580 covers the determination of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, the xylenes, C9 and heavier aromatics, and total aromatics using GC.
This new configuration utilises an Agilent 6890N GC equipped with a single pair of columns along with optimised methods that allow analysis of both oxygenated and aromatic compounds in gasoline samples on a single GC system.
Agilent chemists used nitrogen as the carrier gas instead of the commonly used helium. In some locations, nitrogen is much easier and less expensive to obtain in the necessary chromatography grades than helium.
Using a single instrument and nitrogen carrier gas significantly improves laboratory efficiency and laboratory operating expenses. Tests using real gasoline samples demonstrated that the new configuration provides excellent analytical precision for both retention time and detector response.
Further information is available by requesting Agilent application note 'Running ASTM Methods D4815 and D5580 on a Single Agilent 6890N Gas Chromatograph with Nitrogen Carrier Gas', Agilent publication number 5988-9153EN.
This note is available without charge from any Agilent sales office or its website.
