Detailed knowledge of petroleum products at molecular scale has always been

essential to understand the mechanisms leading to their formation, to design

thermodynamic and kinetic models employed in the refining processes and to predict

their physical properties. In view of the complexity of petroleum products, very

significant research efforts have been made over the past 15 years for improving

relevant analytical techniques, especially in the field of Gas Chromatography in order

to improve its separation power. The advent of comprehensive Two-dimensional

Gas Chromatography (GCxGC) at the end of 1990's constitutes a true revolution

allowing an unprecedented insight into very complex mixture at the molecular level.

This book aims at providing a complete review of the implementation of Gas

Chromatography in the field of oil industry, with an important focus on GCxGC

and related multidimensional systems. It is therefore organised into 8 chapters

dealing with fundamental and experimental aspects as well as data processing

challenges. Recent progress in the development of these chromatographic systems

are discussed according to various applications: detailed molecular analysis of

hydrocarbons, speciation of hetero-element, global properties calculation based

on chromatographic data and simulated distillation. Specialists from IFP Energies

nouvelles, CNRS and major companies leading important research in this field

have contributed, reporting a synthesis of the knowledge acquired from research

these last 15 years.

Thus, this book will be useful for anyone involved in the separation of oil and

derivatives: the student starting a research project, the academic researcher and the

refinery engineer willing to deepen their knowledge on advanced multidimensional

Gas Chromatography, as well as molecular analysis of petroleum products.