Applications of Gas Chromatography in Petrochemical, Agrochemical,

Environmental science, Forensic science, Inorganic analysis,

Measurement of Physicochemical and Thermodynamic Parameters etc.

Introduction: Gas chromatography has been found to be a very powerful tool for
Petrochemical, Pesticide, Pharmaceutical, environmental analysis, forensic analysis and
Inorganic analysis. In all these applications there is basic requirement of very selective
and sensitive method. Gas chromatography with its excellent separation capabilities and
with highly sensitive detectors like MS is the most preferred technique over others.
In addition to its uses as an analytical method, GC can be used to make physicochemical
measurements and thermodynamic measurements. Modification of GC in the form of
Inverse gas chromatography gives lot of insights about thermodynamic parameters.
Petrochemical Analysis
Gas chromatography is a key analytical tool for the petroleum and petrochemical
industry. For petroleum it covers the exploration, production and refining of crude oil.
The analysis of hydrocarbon in petroleum and its products began in the mid 1800s. The
original methods were based on physical properties such as boiling point and specific
gravity. The development of GC and the analysis of petroleum and petrochemicals have
enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship. Eggertsen and co-workers in 1956 described a
50-ft column packed with carbon black containing 1.5 % squalene to separate 10 major
C5-C6 saturates in 2 hrs. By 1958 the same workers used other column packings and
extended the analysis of the saturates to C7. All but two of 24 C6-C7 saturates were
resolved in 12-16 hrs. In 1968, sanders and Maynard published a method for C3-C12
hydrocarbons in gasoline. They performed this analysis in less than 2 hrs. on a 200-ft
squalene column by using both flow and temperature programming.
The trend has been toward the increased use of GC in the petroleum industry. This is due
to the relatively low cost of a gas chromatographic system that can provide more detailed
analyses as well as the detection of trace components.

The concept of standardized testing is important in the petroleum industry, as it is in

many others. Its usefulness for commodity-type products that are widely bought, sold and
exchanged is apparent. The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) has
provided these standardized procedures that are required for product specification testing.

Geochemical Studies: Since the early 1970s, a large portion of the knowledge gained in
organic geochemistry can be tied to advances in gas chromatography and its coupling to
specific detectors. The technique has proved adaptable to the characterization of a wide
range of petroleum compounds. Future developments in column phase, instrumentation,
detectors, and data processing/ display will undoubtedly be embraced readily by the
geochemical community.