Experimental design optimization of the separation of the aromatic compounds in petroleum cuts by supercritical fluid chromatography

A experimental design optimization method is demonstrated for evaluation of the resolution of the performance mixture used in the proposed ASTM test to determine the aromatic content of aviation fuels. The method uses a Doehlert experimental matrix test to optimize the resolution and analysis time by varying the pressure and temperature of the supercritical carbon dioxide mobile phase. The separation between saturated and aromatic compounds was optimized using only seven experiments. With this procedure, the analysis time required for determination of the total aromatic content of more complex samples can be reduced to less than 10 min.