The use of poorly resolved gas chromatographic curves for the analysis of binary mixtures of petroleum fractions

Blends of petroleum products are usually made from fractions which contain preponderantly the same compounds. Only the relative abundances vary. A calculation of the contribution of each blended fraction is theoretically possible with the aid of the gas Chromatographic elution curve even though resolution is uniformly poor in such complex systems. An elementary mathematical analysis is made to show what conditions must maintain. Experimental evidence is presented to indicate that the necessary conditions can be realized for petroleum blends. Binary mixtures of complex fractions may be analyzed with an accuracy of better than 10% and only normal attention to detail need be observed.