Abstract
Petroleum crude oils are broadly classified as paraffinic, asphaltic and mixed crude oils. Paraffinic crude oils are composed of aliphatic hydrocarbons (paraffins), wax (long-chain normal paraffin) and high-grade oils. Asphaltic crude oils contain large proportions of asphaltic materials with low or negligible concentrations of paraffins. Other classifications can be according to API gravity and sulfur content. For characterization, a conventional procedure is to separate petroleum into saturates, aromatics, resins and asphaltenes fractions, known as a SARA (Saturates-Aromatics-Resin-Asphalt) analysis.
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Hsu, C.S., Robinson, P.R. (2019). Classification and Characterization. In: Petroleum Science and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16275-7_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16275-7_4
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