The pre-separation of oxygen containing compounds in oxidised heavy paraffinic fractions and their identification by GC-MS with supersonic molecular beams.

The heavy petroleum fractions produced during refining processes need to be upgraded to useable products to increase their value. Hydrogenated heavy paraffinic fractions can be oxidised to produce high value products that contain a variety of oxygenates. These heavy oxygenated paraffinic fractions need to be characterised to enable the control of oxidation processes and to understand product properties.

Fractionation by liquid chromatography combined with comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry for analysis of cyclics in oligomerisation products of Fischer-Tropsch derived light alkenes.

In oligomerisation products of High Temperature Fischer-Tropsch (HTFT) derived light alkenes using a solid phosphoric acid (SPA) catalyst, the presence of cyclics was presumed although their occurrence could not be explained by the generally accepted oligomerisation mechanism. Notwithstanding the use of GC×GC-TOFMS, the cyclic alkanes could not be differentiated from the alkenes. On the one hand, compounds co-eluted in GC×GC and, on the other hand, MS cannot distinguish between these classes because of identical molecular masses and very similar mass fragmentation patterns.