This application note describes the use of the Varian PIONA+™ Analyzer for the fast analysis of paraffins, iso-paraffins, naphthenes and aromatics in hydrocarbon streams.
The document details an optimization technique for the Varian PIONA+ Analyzer (now Agilent) used for determining the composition of spark ignition fuels. The conventional mode suffers from breakthrough of volatile n-paraffins and long analysis times of approximately two hours.
By implementing concurrent heating (temperature programming) on both the CP-Molsieve 5A trap and the CP-Molsieve 13X trap, the method achieves a significant reduction in analysis time to about 40 minutes. This improvement allows for easier quantification without requiring hardware adaptations or negatively affecting chromatographic separation.
The analysis time is reduced by about 40 minutes, or nearly 45 percent, when using the fast mode instead of the regular mode.
The analysis time for a calibration mix in the regular PINA mode is about 95 minutes.
The analysis time for a calibration mix in the fast PINA mode is reduced to 55 minutes.