Multidimensional gas chromatography for the detailed PIONA analysis of heavy naphtha: hyphenation of an olefin trap to comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography.

A multidimensional method providing the composition of a heavy naphtha in paraffins, isoparaffins, olefins, naphthenes, and aromatics (PIONA) in the C8-C14 range is presented. The analytical set-up consists in a silver modified silica olefin trap on-line coupled to comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC x GC). In this configuration, hydrocarbons are separated, in gaseous state, in two fractions, saturate and unsaturate, each fraction being subsequently analysed by GC or by GC x GC. The resolution between saturates and olefins was found to be improved compared to a single GC x GC run. The characterisation of the olefin trap highlights the benefits and the limits related to the use of that stationary phase as a double bond selective fractionation medium.