Determinación de las fracciones del petróleo crudo con el empleo de la destilación simulada por cromatografía gaseosa como método alternativo

In the oil industry it is very important to know the composition of the crude oil fractions, since it varies depending on their origin. It is feasible and profitable their industrial separation by distillation in fractions of different boiling points intervals for dissimilar applications, but before carrying out the industrial process it is necessary to deter- mine in the laboratory the composition of each fraction for the adaptation of this purpose. Usually this is implemented by distillation at atmospheric and reduced pressures of the oil samples, although this determination could be made by simulated distillation using gas chromatography. A method of gas chromatography simulated distillation was established in order to its future application in Cuban refinery laboratories. It was performed using capillary gas chromatography with flame ionization detector. The test method consisted on a modification of the standard ASTM D5307-07 which establishes the use of packed columns, which were substituted by capillary columns. The samples were analyzed using a mixture of n-paraffins as internal standard (n-hexadecane, n-heptadecane, n-octadecane and n-nonadecane.). The tests of column resolution, determinations of the response factors and retention times repeatability were carried out. The statistical analysis shows good results in the repeatability and reproducibility tests. The composition of the different fractions of a number of samples of oil was obtained and they were compared with the results obtained by the classical method of True Boiling Points ASTM D 2892-05, being similar in both methods. It can be concluded that this method is possible to implant.