Patent ID: 9417220
Filing Date: 2016-08-16
CPC Classification: G01N,H01J

Claim Text:
1. A method for characterizing petroleum or other hydrocarbon compositions, comprising: separating a first plurality of compounds in a first hydrocarbon sample using a first gas chromatography separation; determining a composition and a first weight for each of the separated first plurality of compounds using field ionization time of flight mass spectrometry; separating a second plurality of compounds in a second hydrocarbon sample using a second gas chromatography separation, the second gas chromatography separation including at least a first separation stage and a second separation stage, the second hydrocarbon sample being derived from the same hydrocarbon source as the first hydrocarbon sample; determining a second weight for each of the separated second plurality of compounds; wherein the second weight for each of the separated second plurality of compounds is determined by flame ionization detection; assigning the separated second plurality of compounds to a plurality of compound classes; determining a relative weight for each of the separated second plurality of compound classes based on the second weights of the assigned compounds for each compound class; correlating the first plurality of compounds with the second plurality of compounds; and normalizing the first weight for each of at least a portion of the separated first plurality of compounds, based on the determined relative weights for the plurality of compound classes, to generate a normalized weight for each compound, the normalizing of a first weight for a compound being based on at least a compound class corresponding to a determined composition for the compound; and developing a model of composition for the hydrocarbon source based on at least the normalized weights for the separated first plurality of compounds.