INTRODUCTION

Volatility describes how easily a substance will vaporize which is either from solid or
liquid into gas or vapour. A volatile substance can be defined as a substance that
evaporates readily at normal temperatures or one that has a measurable vapour
pressure(“The MSDS HyperGlossary: Volatility,” 2016). The volatility of fuel
especially for automotive, it need to be acceptable for several procedure such as
engine start-up, warm-up, acceleration and throttle response under normal driving
conditions. Basically, the substances will vaporize more if the vapour pressure is
higher instead of the substances with the low pressure. In order to obtain the higher
pressure of vapour in dynamic equilibrium with its vaporizing substance, the volatility
of substances is important. The vapour pressure of a substance is the pressure at
which its gaseous phase is in equilibrium with its liquid or solid phase. To measure
the volatility, two kind of device had been introduced which is Reid Vapour Pressure
(RVP) and the other one is True Vapour Pressure (TVP). Reid Vapour Pressure
(RVP) is a testing method for crude oil, fuel, other refined petroleum products, and
petrochemicals in order to measures the vapour pressure of a substance. The
definition of RVP also can be the absolute pressure exerted by a mixture and can be
determined at 37.8oC whereby at a vapour to liquid ratio of 4. Meanwhile, TVP is a
common measure of volatility of petroleum distillate fuels. It is defined as the
equilibrium of the vapour pressure with condensed phase at a specific temperature.
The different between RVP and TVP is that RVP is more convenient approximation
of the absolute vapour pressure that vaporized at 37.8oC compare to TVP. The main
purposes of this experiment are to determine the Reid vapour pressure of petroleum
products and to compare with another source. The Reid vapour pressure (RVP) was
tested on different types of oil which is petrol, kerosene and diesel in order to
determine the volatility of liquid hydrocarbons.
THEORY

One of the physical characteristic that is important for the volatile liquids is the vapour
pressure. There were two kinds of vapour pressure which is True Vapour Pressure and Reid
Vapour Pressure. In this experiment, the Reid vapour Pressure had been focused more
because it is used to determine the vapour pressure at 37.8oC of petroleum products and crude
oils at above 0oC initial boiling point.

Figure 1 Reid test vessel Figure 2 ASTM D323

By referring the Figure 1, the Reid test vessel had been used by filling up the liquid of
kerosene, petrol and diesel in it. The test vessel is then been immersed inside the ASTM
D323 which contain the water bath with temperature at 37.8 oC. At atmospheric pressure,
when the liquid has reached its boiling point, the liquid changes its state from liquid to a gas
through its bulk and it is called normal boiling point. The tendency of molecules to escape
from the liquid phase to gases phase depends on the temperature, vapour pressure and
volatility. The higher volatility and higher vapour pressure will be low tendency of molecule
to escape its phase. Petroleum products are usually grouped into three categories which are
Light distillates (LPG, gasoline, naphtha), Middle distillates (kerosene, diesel), and lastly
Heavy distillates (heavy fuel oil, lubricating oils, wax, asphalt) which result kerosene and
diesel are classified under middle distillate and petrol is light distillate. The classification of
petroleum product distinguish the carbon contain. Heavy distillate contains high number of
carbon than the others. The lower the number of carbon, which at the top of the fractionating
column have lower boiling points, which means the higher the vapour pressure and the higher
volatility of a fuel by increasing the temperature, which means a highly volatile fuel will
vaporize more at a faster rate than a fuel with a lower volatility. High volatile oil which is
petroleum product at top distillate tends to flame and explode easily than the fractions at the
bottom. The RVP for petrol is typically in the range from 40 to 60 kPa or 6 to 9 psia (Joseph
E. Shepherd, 2007).

1. The MSDS HyperGlossary: Volatility. (2016). Retrieved February 26, 2018, from
http://www.ilpi.com/msds/ref/volatility.html
2. Shepherd, J. E., & Perez, F. A. (2007). Kerosene lamps and cookstoves-The hazards
of gasoline contamination. Fire Safety Journal, 43(3), 171–179.