Chromatograph addresses the limitations of gas and liquid chromatography to separate compounds prone to thermal instability, and subject to other causes of ineffective separations
Temperature programmed liquid chromatography (TPLC) and supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) specialist Selerity Technologies has demonstrated that its series 3000 SFC is the preferred method to obtain a class type separation for the determination of olefins in gasoline.
Gasoline is principally composed of three major hydrocarbon group-types: saturates, aromatics and olefins.
The latter are formed during vehicle combustion of fuel and during refinery processing, and are thus one of the major contributors to the environmental issues faced by some of the US southern states.
Since SFC has become an official ASTM method (ASTM D6550), the California Air Resources Board (Carb) mandated as of 1 January 2002 that all gasolines being sold or refined in the state of California should be analysed by ASTM D6550 to determine their olefin content. Selerity's analyses of olefins in gasoline show that the results obtained from the series 3000 are well within the accepted tolerances of ASTM D6550.
Selerity says the series 3000 provides unsurpassed reproducibility and an economical and accurate alternative to the traditional methods for olefin determination (fluorescence indicator adsorption, GC and GC/MS) which, according to the company, are littered with shortcomings. Further details about these experiments and their accompanying results are available in an application note (number 301) developed by Selerity.
Selerity's series 3000 instrumentation addresses the limitations of gas and liquid chromatography to separate compounds prone to thermal instability, and subject to other causes of ineffective separations, including a lack of chromophores.
The success of the series 3000 has led Selerity to develop the series 4000 to take productivity and efficiency to new levels.
The series 4000 consists of a high capacity force air oven with a flame ionisation detector for rapid heating and cooling, a 10ml syringe pump for pulse-free mobile phase delivery and minimal usage of carbon dioxide, and an autosampler.
The system is fully automated through a data acquisition software package.
