High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was applied to four commercial grade Saudi Arabian crude oils having API gravity in the range 28 to 38 for the determination of hydrocarbon group types namely asphaltenes, saturates, aromatics and polars. Each of these crude oils was separated into asphaltenes and maltenes using n-hexane as the precipitating solvent. The maltenes (n-hexane soluble) were fractionated into saturates, aromatics and polars fractions by n-hexane elution on a column packed with amino propylsilane chemically bonded to porous silica particles. The data obtained shows that the weight percent saturates increase whereas aromatics, polars and asphaltenes decrease from Arab Heavy to Arab Bern through Arab Medium and Arab Light crude oil. The results obtained from HPLC were in comparison with those obtained from ASTM method D2007. This method is easier, faster and offer good repeatability. This method can be applied to other crude oils.
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Ali et al. (1994) studied this question.
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