Two vacuum residues were delivered from two different petroleum refineries, one from Suez Petroleum Company and the second from Alexandria Petroleum
Company. They were subjected to solvent extraction using n-pentane, n-heptane,
and ethyl acetate. The process of solvent extraction aims to separate maltenes and
asphaltenes. The maltenes were further subjected to liquid chromatography (column
chromatograph) in order to separate them into saturates and aromatics (mono-, di-,
and poly-) and resins. The saturates that were separated from the maltenes of the two
vacuum residues with different solvents were studied by gas chromatography in order
to determine how much n-paraffins and cyclo-paraffins they contained.