Accurate determination of aromatic groups in heavy petroleum fractions using HPLC-UV-DAD

The purpose of this work is to identify specific aromatic component groups in heavy petroleum fractions based on their elution times and UV spectrum patterns using high performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet diode array detection (HPLC-UV-DAD). Multivariate statistical methods such as evolving factor analysis and k-means clustering were used to interpret the signal obtained from the analysis of gas oil samples, in which strong overlapping of the eluting aromatic component groups occurs. The presented method allows the precise determination of the elution profiles of a series of aromatic component groups and therefore can be applied for their accurate quantitative determination.