High
performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is a well established
analytical technique in the study of crude oil, and it has recently
become more integrated within the field of petroleomics as a first
step before high-resolution mass spectrometric analysis. This mini-review
summarizes and discusses the applications of HPLC for the analyses
of crude oil and its related products that have been published over
the last 10 years. A brief introduction to separation science is provided,
and applications are divided by compound class (group-type separations,
heteroatoms, and other specialty analytes). Special attention is paid
to applications that specifically couple to Fourier Transform ion
cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry, and these are discussed in
a separate section.