PETROLEUM

REFINERY

Thermophysical Properties of
Petroleum Fractions and Crude Oils
 Pseudo Components
o Calculations involving crude oil and petroleum fractions require the composition of
each process stream.
o Since most of the actual components are not known, the petroleum fractions are
characterized as a mixture of discrete pseudo-components with defined boiling point
ranges or cut points on the TBP distillation curve.
o Each pseudo-component corresponds to several unknown actual compounds (e.g.
paraffins, naphthenes, and aromatics) that boil in a given temperature range.
o Usually each pseudo-component is characterized by an average normal boiling point,
specific gravity, and molecular weight.
o The first two properties are obtained experimentally from the TBP curve and gravity
versus volume distilled curve.
 Pseudo Components
o In some cases, only the overall specific gravity of the fraction is measured.
o The molecular weight is usually calculated through a correlation.
o Once these parameters are determined, the pseudo-components can be
treated as any defined component for the calculation of thermophysical
and thermodynamic properties like enthalpy, entropy, and transport
properties such as viscosity, thermal conductivity, and diffusivity.
o Some properties, like pour point, depend on the chemical nature of the
compounds represented in the pseudo-components.
o Then the information on the chemical compositions in terms of percentage
of paraffins, naphthenes and aromatics becomes necessary.
 Breakup of TBP Curve into Pseudo-
components

o The TBP for the crude oil or the petroleum fraction has to be available by
1. Direct laboratory measurements through ASTM D1160 distillation
2. The conversion of ASTM D86 distillation into a TBP distillation curve.
o TBP cut point ranges are used to define pseudo-components with the
average temperature of the cut or the midpoint NBP.
o If the petroleum fraction contains components lighter than pentanes, the
composition of the lighter ends has to be available experimentally
through chromatographic analysis of the vapors.
 Breakup of TBP Curve into Pseudo-
components

o Otherwise, the lighter ends are lumped with the lightest pseudo-
component.
o The number of such pseudo-components depends on the boiling
point range of the whole petroleum fraction.
o This number is a trade off between producing a smooth
calculated property curve and having too many components
which both leads to excessive computation time.
Reasonable Cut-point Ranges
 Determination of no. of Pseudo
Components
A general guideline for determining the number of pseudo-components is
as follows:
1. 10oC(50oF) for light fractions with boiling points less than 200oC (392oF)
2. 15oC (59oF) for fractions with boiling points between 200 and 400oC (392–752oF)
3. 20oC (68oF) for fractions with boiling points between 400 and 600oC (752–1112oF)
4. 30oC (86oF) for fractions with boiling points beyond 600oC (1112oF)
The number of pseudo-components depends on the application.
In distillation calculations, more NBP cuts might be needed to represent narrow boiling
products.
TBP Curve by Pseudo Components
 Example 3.3

Divide the TBP curve of the petroleum cut as calculated from

API method into 20 pseudo-components. Calculate the liquid
volume percentage of each pseudo-component.
 Example 3.3

The end point of the cut is 218.2 oC (425 oF) and the IBP is 5.4 oC (22
oF).

Therefore each pseudo-component has a temperature interval of (218.2+

5.4)/20 or 11.2 oC.
 Example 3.3
Then the curve can be cut as follows.
The average boiling point for the first pseudo-component is (5.4+5.8)/2 or
0.2 C.
The vol% is 2.84 as read from the TBP curve.
The second cut has an end boiling point of 17 C and an end volume percent
of 6.19.
Therefore, the vol% of this cut is 6.19 2.84 or 3.36 vol%.
The average boiling point for the second cut is (17+ 5.8)/2 or 11.4 C.