PIONA analysis of kerosene by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to time of flight mass spectrometry

•It was developed a PIONA analysis for kerosene samples by GC×GC–TOFMS.•It provides a hydrocarbon class and carbon number distribution.•Identification was performed by scripts written in VBScript language.•Semiquantification was based on the area of characteristic fragments and molecular ions.•Results were compared with reference methods and they closely resemble. A method to determine n-paraffins, iso-paraffins, olefins–naphthenes and aromatics (PIO-NA) in kerosene samples by comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography coupled to time of flight mass spectrometry (GC×GC–TOFMS) is reported. This method is based on a correct identification of kerosene compounds by Scripting (Visual Basic programming) which establishes rules for filtering spectral data to locate compounds having defined spectral properties of a particular compound class. This tool implies a significant reduction of analysis time for very complex samples. Semiquantification of compound families is performed by adding the areas of the characteristic mass fragments of each compound class and their respective molecular ions. The kerosene samples for analysis were produced by different conversion processes such as catalytic reforming, alkylation, catalytic cracking and hydroprocessing depending on the kerosene distillation process. To assure the reliability of the method, samples were also analyzed by reference methods and good concordances were found between the results obtained.