T h e conversion of residuum materials t o gasoline and fuel oils h a s assumed increased importance with the development and commercial operation of the Houdresid process. Houdresid operation catalytically cracks residua to high quality gasoline and distillate products. Characteristically, residual stocks contain higher quantities of condensed ring hydrocarbons than distillate stocks generally charged to catalytic cracking. Detailed analyses have therefore been performed to determine the chemical composition of a gasoline from Houdresid operation.Relationships have been established between gasoline composition and product quality. For refinery operations, the comparison of Houdresid and Houdriflow gasolines is significant.Analyses for hydrocarbon types became feasible through the combined techniques of silica gel adsorption and mass spectrographic analysis. Where possible, additional and more detailed t e s t s have been used to corroborate the data o b t a i y d by such direct analyses.Extensive u s e has been made of silica gel analysis by other workers in the field. Bates and others (1) utilized it t o analyze thermal and catalytic gasolines with regard to paraffin, naphthene, olefin, and aromatic content. Rossini and others (4) used it in conjunction with extensive distillation t o obtain the hydrocarbon type composition and also detailed data about the occurrence of specific paraffins and naphthenes. Neither of these groups attempted to differentiate among olefin types. In 1949, Rampton (6) effected olefin skeletal analysis by using the conventional silica gel adsorption technique in conjunction with mild hydrogenation. Although information is not available concerning the source of the catalytic gasoline which h e studied, the summary data are presented below.