Crude Oil And Asphaltene Characterization by Pyrolysis Coupled to Gas Chromatography High Resolution Time-of-flight Mass Spectrometry

Petroleum is the most complex matrix in nature, constituted by many thousands of compounds, and presents an analytical challenge. As the world's remaining deposits of petroleum become heavier, it's important to understand the chemical nature of heavy crude oil and its fractions. The analysis of high-boiling point constituents adds a new dimension for the complete characterization of crude oil. In this study we evaluated the use of a pyrolysis probe coupled to gas chromatography high resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometry (Py-HC-HRTOFMS) for the characterization of crude oils and asphaltene fractions.