Duhok polytechnic

university
Faculty of Petrochemical Engineering
School Petroleum Refinery

Laboratory of petroleum Refinery

EXPERIMENT NUMBER THREE

FRACTIONAL DISTILLATION

Instructor: Mr. Alaa

Author Name: Muhammad Akram
Experiment Contacted on: 3/MAR/2018
Report Submitted on: 31/MAR /2013
Group: A
SCOPE
To determine the distillation characteristics (boiling range)
of the given sample using the distillation apparatus.

INTRODUCTION:
This method of test covers the distillation of different cuts like motor
gasoline, aviation gasoline, aviation turbine fuels, special boiling point
spirits, naphtha, white spirit, kerosene, gas oils, distillate fuel oils and similar
petroleum products. A 100 ml sample is distilled under prescribed conditions
which are appropriate to its nature. Systematic observations of thermometer
readings and volumes of condensate are made, and from the data, the results
of the test are calculated and reported.
The distillation (volatility) characteristics of hydrocarbons have an important
effect on their safety and performance, especially in the case of fuels and
solvents. The boiling range gives information on the composition, the
properties, and the behavior of the fuel during storage and use. Volatility is
the major determinant of the tendency of a hydrocarbon mixture to produce
potentially explosive vapors.
The distillation characteristics are critically important for both automotive
and aviation gasoline, affecting starting, warm-up, and tendency to vapor
lock at high operating temperature or at high altitude, or both. The presence
of high boiling point components in these and other fuels can significantly
affect the degree of formation of solid combustion deposits.
Distillation limits are often included in petroleum product specifications, in
commercial contract agreements, process refinery/control applications, and
for compliance to regulatory rules.
This test method can be applied to contaminated products or hydrocarbon
mixtures. This is valuable for fast product quality screening, refining process
monitoring, fuel adulteration control, or other purposes including use as a
portable apparatus for field testing.
SIGNIFICANCE
 Distillation (volatility) characteristics of petroleum products are
indicative of performance in their intended applications.
 Petroleum product specifications generally include distillation
limits to ensure products of suitable volatility performance.
 The empirical results obtained by use of this distillation method
have been found to correlate with automotive equipment
performance factors and with other characteristics of petroleum
products related to volatility.
 For motor spirit the 10% distillation value gives an indication of
the engine start conditions, also the final boiling point.
Apparatus
1. Distillation Flask flask with a side arm shall be of a size that is at least
50 % larger than the volume of the charge.
2. Capacitor pass through cooling bath
3. Magnetic stirring bar. Boiling chips can be used as an alternative.
4. An electric heating mantle covering the lower half of the flask.
5. Thermometer
6. Graduated cylinder to receive the distillate
7. A sample of crude oil
Procedure:
1.Place (100) ml of the sample in the distillation flask
2. Place/few pieces of crushed glass on the bottom of the flask to
control boiling process.
3 Gradually raise the temperature, observe rising vapors and then
record the amount of distillate at the corresponding temperatures.
4.Determine the proportion of distillates and specific gravity and API
Gravity versus boiling points.
5. When you reach the boiling point to350 oc/stop distillation process
and transfer residue to another device where complemented by
fractional distillation under reduced pressure less than 40 mm Hg.
6. Report the colour of each fraction.
 OBSERVATION

S.No Volume of Distillate collected Temperature ºC

(ml)

0% 70
160
10%
220
20%
270
30%
296
40%
-
50%
-
60%
Discussion:
1.- What information does the boiling range give on the composition
,the properties of crude oil?
- those with the lowest boiling point evaporate first ,those the highest
boiling point evaporate last ,it mean that component that have the little
amount of carbon component that have the lowest boiling point and the
boiling point proportional increasing with the ratio of carbon component
. 2. How can distillation characteristics of hydrocarbons affect their
safety and performance ?
- When the petroleum product are distillated the different hydrocarbons
compounds inside the petroleum product will separate ,that cause
decreasing in boiling point of the distillated fraction making it easy to
evaporate
3. What is the major determinant of the tendency of a hydrocarbon
mixture to produce potentially explosive vapor ?
- crude oil have many factors affecting and will make hydrocarbon
explosive the first one is pressure on the test plant and crude oil have a
large thermal expansion so we should carful when rising the degree of
temperature and the quality of crude oil …..etc.
4. What are the factors affecting the accuracy of the result ?
There many factors affecting on the accuracy of this experiment, first the
loses of vapor from the flask when it evaporate, if the flask hole around
the thermometer was not closed completely, some of the vapor will run
out from the flask without going through the condenser, to solve this
problem we should close the hole around the thermometer with piece of
rubber. Another problem that affect the results is if the cylinder that we
calculate the distillated vapor in it was open from the top without any
filter paper on it , some of the vapor that have not distillated will go out