Presentation Title:

Critical Properties of Crude oil

Presenter by :
Muhammmad Usman Aslam

Presented to :
Prof . Dr. Liang Zhao
What is Crude Oil?
A complex combination of
hydrocarbons consisting predominantly of
aliphatic, alicyclic and aromatic hydrocarbons. It
may also contain small amounts of nitrogen,
oxygen, and sulfur compounds etc.
Critical Temperature:
The temperature which
above, a substance can not exist as a liquid, no matter
how much pressure is applied. Every substance has a
critical temperature.

Critical Pressure: 
The pressure required to liquefy
a substance vapor at its critical temperature.
Critical point: 
The end point of the pressure-
temperature curve that designates conditions
under which a liquid and its vapor can coexist.
At higher temperatures, the gas cannot be
liquefied by pressure alone. At the critical
point, defined by the critical temperature
Tc and the critical pressure pc.
The vaporization curve terminates at point C, the
critical point. The coordinates of this point are the
critical pressure PC and the critical temperature Tc,
the highest pressure and highest temperature at which
a pure chemical species can exist in vapor liquid
equilibrium.
PRESSURE–VOLUME–TEMPERATURE RELATIONSHIPS

Hydrocarbon vapors, like other gases, follow the

ideal gas law (PV=RT) only at relatively low
pressures and high temperatures, that is, from the
critical state. Several more empirical equations have
been proposed to represent the gas laws more
accurately, such as the well known van der Waals
equation, but they are either inconvenient for
calculation or require the experimental
determination of several constants. A more useful
device is to use the simple gas law and to induce a
correction, termed the compressibility factor , , so
that the equation takes the form.
For hydrocarbons, the compressibility factor is
very nearly a function only of the reduced
variables of state, that is, a function of the
pressure and temperature divided by the
respective critical values. The compressibility
factor method functions excellently for pure
compounds but may become ambiguous for
mixtures, because the critical constants have a
slightly different significance.
Application of Critical Properties:
The temperature,
pressure, and volume at the critical state are of
considerable interest in petroleum physics,
particularly in connection with modern high-
pressure, high-temperature refinery operations
and in correlating pressure–temperature–volume
relationships for other states. Critical data are
known for most of the lower molecular weight
pure hydrocarbons, and standard methods are
generally used for such determinations.
The critical point of a pure
compound is the equilibrium state in
which its gaseous and liquid phases
are indistinguishable and coexistent;
they have the same intensive
properties. However, localized
variations in these phase properties
may be evident experimentally. The
definition of the critical point of a
mixture is the same.
However, mixtures generally have a
maximum temperature or pressure at
other than the true critical point;
maximum here denotes the greatest
value at which two phases can coexist
in equilibrium.