Hydrocarbons - Physical Properties and their Relevance to Utilisation

The book is concerned with properties such as density, refractive index, acoustic impedance and electrical conductivities of hydrocarbon substances. Pure organic compounds feature early in the book chiefly to set benchmark values for the various physical properties later discussed for hydrocarbon products. These include petroleum products across the entire distillation range as well as petroleum residue. Natural gas condensate, liquefied gases, coal tars, biodiesels and alcohol fuels also feature in the book.

The ‘electronic book’ is a feature of this early 21st Century. I have been in academic life for several decades, and have I hope responded with flexibility to changes over that time. I have been using a word processor on a daily basis for twenty years and am deeply conscious of the advantages over even the most advanced typewriters. The first time I gave a presentation using Microsoft PowerPoint was in India about six years ago. I have with enthusiasm used PowerPoint for every invited talk or conference contribution I have given since. Such talks and contributions have been in countries including Australia, Bahrain, Trinidad and Tobago, Kuwait and Armenia.

About a year ago I published, by invitation from Ventus, ‘Atmospheric Pollution’. This was my eighth book, and my first electronic one. Once it became available I was quite delighted with the result, and sent a link to it to friends and professional associates around the world. I used the book as the recommended text in an MSc course at Aberdeen and student response was very positive. I hasten to add that I do not believe that the positive response was due solely to the fact that the book, unlike a ‘conventional’ book, was available free of charge. University students are too shrewd and perceptive to extend their acceptance to something simply because it comes for nothing. Even so, the endeavours of Ventus Publishing and BookBooN in making quality texts available at no cost deserve support. I was therefore pleased to respond in the affirmative to an invitation to write a second book for Ventus. The result is this tome on the physical properties of hydrocarbons.

I expect that this book will be of interest to students and professionals in chemical engineering, fuel technology and mechanical engineering. I have myself used bits of it, prior to publication, in the newly set up chemical engineering degree course at the University of Aberdeen. I shall be pleased to receive feedback from readers.

J.C. Jones
Aberdeen, October 2009.

Author’s Preface

1. Physical properties of organic liquids
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Viscosity
1.2.1 Definitions, dimensions and units
1.2.2 Benzene as a model compound
1.2.3 Extension to other organic compounds
1.2.4 Further remarks
1.3. Acoustic impedance
1.3.1 Introduction
1.3.2 Examples of values for organic liquids
1.4 Thermal conductivities
1.5 Electrical properties
1.5.1 Introduction
1.6 Optical properties
1.7 Concluding remarks
1.8 References

2. Physical properties of crude oils
2.1 Classifications of crude oil by density
2.2 Densities and viscosities of crudes from different sources
2.2.1 Examples
2.2.2 Viscosity and pumping
2.2.3 Viscosity of blended crude oils
2.3 Coefficient of thermal expansion
2.4 Acoustic impedance
2.4.1 Further background
2.4.2 Acoustic impedance of crude oils
2.5 Thermal conductivity
2.5.1 Introduction
2.5.2 Values for crude oils
2.6 Electrical conductivities
2.7 Refractive index
2.8 Concluding remarks
2.9 References

3. Physical properties of gasolines
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Densities and viscosities
3.2.1 Typical values
3.2.2 Viscosities of blends
3.2.3 The vehicle fuel pump
3.3 Coefficient of thermal expansion
3.4 Acoustic impedance, thermal and electrical conductivities
3.5 Refractive index
3.6 Vapour pressure
3.6.1 Reid Vapour Pressure (RVP)
3.6.2 Refinements to the RVP
3.7 Thermal conductivity
3.8 Concluding remarks
3.9 References

Appendix on natural gas condensate
A1. Introduction
A2. Physical properties of natural gas condensate
A3. Concluding remarks
A4. References

4. Physical properties of kerosenes
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Density
4.3 Solid deposition
4.4 Viscosity
4.4.1 Viscosities at flight altitudes
4.4.2 A correlation for variation of viscosity of kerosene with temperature
4.4.3 Kerosene as a diluent for lubricating oils
4.5 Acoustic impedance
4.6 Capacitance
4.7 Electrical conductivities
4.8 Refractive index
4.9 Vapour pressure
4.10 Thermal conductivity
4.11 Concluding remarks
4.12 References

5. Diesel fuels
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Solid deposition
5.2.1 Background
5.2.2 Cloud point depressants
5.3 Viscosities
5.4 Refractive index
5.5 Electrical conductivity
5.6 Lubricity
5.7 Vapour pressure
5.8 Thermal conductivity
5.9 Concluding remarks
5.10 References

6. Products of refinery residue
6.1 Heavy fuel oils
6.1.1 Introduction
6.1.2 Density and viscosity of residual oils
6.1.3 Solid deposition from heavy fuel oils
6.1.4 Vapour pressures of residual fuel oils
6.2 Motor oil
6.2.1 Introduction
6.2.2 Viscosities
6.2.3 Particle deposition
6.2.4 Vapour pressure
6.2.5 Electrical conductivity
6.3 Petroleum jelly
6.3.1 Introduction
6.3.2 Physical properties
6.4 Concluding remarks
6.5 References

7. Coal tars
7.1 Introduction
7.1.1 General background
7.1.2 Comments on coal tars
7.2 Distillate products from coal tars
7.3 Coal tar pitch
7.3.1 Introduction
7.3.2 Viscosities
7.3.3 Vapour pressure
7.4 Fine chemicals from coal tar
7.5 Concluding remarks
7.6 References

8. Alcohol-containing fuels
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Methanol
8.3 Ethanol
8.4 Comparisons of methanol and ethanol with gasolines
8.5 Methanol-gasoline blends
8.6 Ethanol-gasoline blends
8.6.1 Introduction
8.6.2 Vapour pressures
8.6.3 Further details of E85
8.7 Concluding remarks
8.8 References

9. Biodiesel fuels
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Viscosity
9.3 Thermal conductivity
9.4 Refractive index
9.5 Particle deposition
9.5.1 Single compounds
9.5.2 Biodiesel cloud points
9.6 Vapour pressures
9.7 Concluding remarks
9.8 References

10. Hydrocarbons existing either as cryogens or as liquefied gases
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Vapour pressures
10.3.1 Comparison of properties*
10.3.2 Consequences of the high pressure in stored liquefied gases
10.4 Ethylene
10.5 Simple hydrocarbons used as refrigerants
10.6 Concluding remarks
10.7 References

Postscript