A synthetic crude oil derived from Utah A-seam coal by the char-oil-energy development (COED) process was separated into two distillates and one residuum fraction and characterized by methods developed earlier by the Bureau of Mines for characterization of the heavy fractions of petroleum. A combination of several analytical techniques including gel permeation chromatography (GPC), adsorption chromatography, and NMR spectroscopy were used in the characterization of the two distillate fractions and one residuum fraction prepared from the syncrude. The hydrocarbon types found in the synthetic crude oil were similar to those found in petroleum crude oils except that the aromatic concentrates were a large part of the total oil and the amount of alkyl substitution on the aromatic rings were greater. Other differences from petroleum notes were the presence of significant amounts of oxygen compounds and an almost uniform distribution of nitrogen compounds across the boiling range. The behavior of the hydrocarbon types in the separation processes was similar to that of petroleum-derived materials.

A synthetic crude oil derived from western Kentucky coal by the char-oil-energy development (COED) process was characterized by the ERDA Energy Research Center in Bartlesville, OK, by adaptations of methods developed for the characterization of heavy ends of petroleum. A combination of several analytical techniques including gas chromatography, high-pressure liquid chromatography, adsorption chromatography, gel permeation chromatography, excitation and emission spectrofluorimetry, mass spectrometry, and NMR spectroscopy were used in the characterization of the two distillate fractions and one residuum fraction prepared from the syncrude. The results obtained were similar to those obtained for the Utah syncrude which was characterized by ERDA in a previous study.