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Analyzing crude oils from the Junggar Basin (NW China) using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOFMS)

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Abstract

As a new technology of analyzing crude oils, comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOFMS) has received much research attention. Here we present a case study in the Junggar Basin of NW China. Results show that the hydrocarbons, including saturates and aromatics, were all well-separated without large co-elution, which cannot be realized by conventional one-dimensional GC–MS. The GC×GC technique is especially effective for analyzing aromatics and low-to-middle-molecular-weight hydrocarbons, such as diamondoids. The geochemical characteristics of crude oils in the study area were investigated through geochemical parameters extracted by GC×GC-TOFMS, improving upon the understanding obtained by GC–MS. Thus, the work here represents a new successful application of GC×GC-TOFMS, showing its broad usefulness in petroleum geochemistry.

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Acknowledgments

We thank anonymous reviewers for insightful reviews and editors for kindly handling the manuscript. Profs. Shuifu Li and Shouzhi Hu from China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) are thanked for the assistance in conducting the experiment. This work was jointly funded by the Major State Basic Research Development Program of China (973 project, Grant No. 2012CB214803), National Science and Technology Major Project of China (Grant No. 2016ZX05003-005), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41322017 and 41472100).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory for Mineral Deposits Research, Department of Earth Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, Jiangsu, China

    Yuce Wang & Jian Cao

  2. Research Institute of Experiment and Testing, PetroChina Xinjiang Oilfield Company, Karamay, 834000, China

    Wanyun Ma, Ni Zhou & Jiangling Ren

Authors
  1. Yuce Wang
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  2. Wanyun Ma
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  3. Ni Zhou
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  4. Jiangling Ren
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  5. Jian Cao
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Correspondence to Jian Cao.

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Wang, Y., Ma, W., Zhou, N. et al. Analyzing crude oils from the Junggar Basin (NW China) using comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC-TOFMS). Acta Geochim 36, 66–73 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11631-016-0115-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11631-016-0115-5

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