Laboratory Report Submission Form

Petrochemicals & Petroleum Refining Technology (CPB 30503)

TO: SYED AZHAR BIN SYED AB RAHMAN Code: CPB 30503

From: (Student Name/Section) ID Number

1) NASRUL AWAL BIN AMERUDIN 1) 55213116074
2) MUHAMMAD HAFIZ IMRAN BIN HASNUL NIZAM 2) 55213116090
3) MOHAMAD FAHMI BIN AZMI 3) 55213116032
4) ABDUL MUIZ BIN AB AZIZ 4) 55213116106
5) 5)
6) 6)
Title of experiment: REID VAPOUR PRESSURE Date of experiment: 7 MAC 2019
(EXPERIMENT 4)
Received by: Date Due:
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1.0 OBJECTIVES (TOTAL PERCENTAGE, 5%) 1 2 3 4 5

State the objectives of the experiment or report (in point form).

2.0 SUMMARY (1 PAGE ONLY) (TOTAL PERCENTAGE, 10%) 2 4 6 8 10

Brief review on the objectives of the experiment, main experimental results and
discussions deemed significant and conclusions obtained from the work.

3.0 INTRODUCTION & THEORY (1-2 PAGES ONLY) 3 6 9 12 15

(TOTAL PERCENTAGE,15%)
1. State the background to the experiment conducted.
2. Summary of theories including formulations related to the experimental work.

10 20 30 40 50
4.0 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS/TUTORIAL (MAXIMUM 5 PAGES) (TOTAL
PERCENTAGE, 50%)
1. Data are presented as deemed suitable with complete label and units
2. Explanations of the referred table and figure are presented after the table and
figure
3. Discuss on the findings and relations to the theory and objective of experiment

3 6 9 12 15
5.0 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS (TOTAL PERCENTAGE, 15%)
1. Summary of the results to relate the findings or results with the theory applicable
to the experimental
2. Suggest improvements in apparatus or measurement procedure, or experimental
procedures for future

1 2 3 4 5
6.0 REFERENCES (TOTAL PERCENTAGE, 5% )

TOTAL PERCENTAGE (100%)

Date of Submission: 14 MAC 2019

Group: 5
Section: L01-P1
Subject & Code: CPB 30503
Experiment title: REID VAPOUR PRESSURE
(EXPERIMENT 4)

Lecturer's Name: SYED AZHAR BIN SYED AB RAHMAN

Chop

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

NO CONTENT PAGE

1.0 OBJECTIVES 3

2.0 SUMMARY 3

3.0 INTRODUCTION & THEORY 4-5

4.0 RESULTS & DISCUSSION 6-9

5.0 TUTORIAL 10

6.0 CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS 11

7.0 REFERENCES 12

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1.0 OBJECTIVES
 To determine the Reid vapor pressure of petroleum products.
 To compare the Reid vapor pressure of different petroleum products.

2.0 SUMMARY
The objectives of this experiment is to determine the vapour pressure of petroleum
products and to compare the Reid vapour pressure of different petroleum products. Basically,
there are three types of oils that we used to differentiate the vapour pressure. They are kerosene,
petrol and lubricating oil. Meanwhile, the apparatus that was used to determine the Reid vapour
pressure was ASTM D323. The apparatus consist of two chambers which are the vapour
chamber (upper section) and liquid chamber (lower section), pressure gauge and water bath.
Each of the oil were poured into 3 different liquid chamber. When the water bath reached
37.8˚C, the vapour pressure apparatus will be placed in the water bath. When the reading is
stable or 5 minutes only then we can take the pressure reading. This step is performed for 3
times until 15 minutes to achieve the average pressure. Reid Vapour Pressure is the method to
test the measurement and volatility of crude oil and other petroleum products. RVP is stated in
kilopascal. Volatility is the property of a liquid fuel that defines its evaporation characteristics
where the volatility must be high enough to avoid vapor lock, vaporization loses, air pollution
and unsafe storage and handling. The average of RVP for diesel, kerosene and petrol are 2.8
kPa, 3.7 kPa and 36.3 kPa, respectively. Petrol has the highest RVP among these three
petroleum products, followed by diesel and kerosene, where diesel has the lowest RVP. Petrol
is a high volatile petroleum and has a lower viscocity product that can vaporize easily. Thus
explained why it has the highest vapour pressure.(Pandey et al., 2004). The lower the viscosity,
the higher the RVP. As a conclusion, the actual value obtained were different with expected
RVP value from the theory because the device was worn out. Hence, it does not producing an
accurate result.

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3.0 INTRODUCTION AND THEORY

INTRODUCTION

In chemistry and physic study, volatility refers to the tendency of the substance
to vaporize at given temperature. Volatility is one of importance characteristic which
needed to be assure high enough for the usage. For automotive, the volatility of fuel
need to be acceptable for engine start-up, warm-up, acceleration and throttle response
under normal driving conditions. The substance with high vapor pressure will vaporize
more readily than the substances with low vapor pressure. So the more volatile the
substance will contribute to higher pressure of the vapor in dynamic equilibrium with
its vaporizing substance. The vapor pressure of a substance is the pressure at which its
gaseous phase is in equilibrium with its liquid or solid phase. It is a measure of the
tendency of molecules and atoms to escape from a liquid or solid. There are two kind
of device that can measure the volatility which is Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) and the
other one is True Vapor Pressure (TVP). Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) is a testing method
for crude oil, fuel, other refined petroleum products, and petrochemicals in order to
measures the vapor pressure of a substance (EPA, 2016). RVP also can be defined as
the absolute pressure exerted by a mixture, can be determined 37.8oC and at a vapor to
liquid ratio of 4. On the other hand, TVP is a common measure of volatility of petroleum
distillate fuels. It is defined as the equilibrium of the vapor pressure with condensed
phase at a specific temperature. The different between RVP and TVP is that RVP is
more convenient approximation of the absolute vapor 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.

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 THEORY

Vapor pressure is very important physical property of volatile liquids. This is because
it is used to determine the vapor pressure at 37.8oC of petroleum products and crude oils at
above 0oC initial boiling point. 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’s called normal
boiling point. The tendency of molecules to escape from the liquid phase to gases phase
depends on the temperature, vapor pressure and volatility. The higher volatility and higher
vapor 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 are petroleum product at top distillate tend 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).

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4.0 RESULTS & DISCUSSIONS

4.1 RESULTS

Table 1: The RVP (RVP) of three different of petroleum products

Time RVP (RVP) of petroleum products (kPa)
(min) Diesel Kerosene Petrol
5 2.8 3.6 36.3
10 2.8 3.7 36.3
15 2.9 3.7 36.3
Average 2.8 3.7 36.3

Reid vapour pressure (RVP) of petroleum product against

time
40
Reid vapour pressure of petroleum product

35
30
25
20
15
(kPa)

10
5
0
5 10 15
Time(min)

DIESEL KEROSENE PETROL

Figure 1: RVP (RVP) of petroleum products against time

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4.2 DISCUSSIONS

Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) is a testing method for crude oil, fuel, other refined
petroleum products, and petrochemicals in order to measures the vapor pressure of a substance.
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. This test also measures the potential impact of source of oil on engine
performance. In addition, RVP is a first test or analysis to define the nature of the feedstock
and also it’s optimal condition. Reid vapour pressure determines the volatility of the feedstock.
Volatility is the property of a liquid fuel that defines its evaporation characteristics. This
volatility must be high enough to avoid vapour lock, vaporization loses, air pollution and unsafe
storage and handling.

Based on this experiment of determination of RVP of petroleum products that has been
carried out, the main objective is to determine and compare RVP of three different petroleum
products where diesel, kerosene and petrol were tested to determine the volatility of liquid
hydrocarbons. The apparatus of RVP consists of two chambers of vapour and liquids chamber,
pressure gauges and water bath. The water bath was heated until it reached the desired
temperature of 37.8 ºC. This is because the functions of RVP experiment do not eliminate air
or water vapour from the samples but compares all petroleum products at 37.8 ºC. Next, the
chambers of diesel, kerosene and petrol were set up and put into the water bath. Then, the
readings of RVP for diesel, kerosene and petrol were obtained from pressure digital meter (kPa)
and the readings were recorded when the readings are stable or 5 minute until the readings
stabilized.

From the experiment, the readings of RVP for different petroleum products at petrol
has the highest RVP among these three petroleum products which is 36.3 kPa, followed by
diesel and kerosene which are 2.8 kPa and 3.7 kPa, respectively, where diesel has the lowest
RVP. This is due to the higher the vapour pressure, the higher volatility of the petroleum
product by increasing the temperature. For a given temperature, a highly volatile petroleum
product will vaporize more readily at a faster rate than a fuel with a lower volatility where a
highly volatile fuel is more likely to form a flammable or explosive mixture with air than a low
volatile fuel (Pandey et al., 2004). Next, petrol is more volatile than both diesel and kerosene

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because of the base constituents and the additives that are put into it (Demirbas & Bamufleh,
2017). In addition, the viscosity of petrol is lower than diesel and kerosene. This is due to the
lower the viscosity, the higher the RVP (Mužíková et al., 2014). In contrast, both diesel and
kerosene have a high viscosity where it can vaporize easily and resulted to have low RVP.

By using of RVP test, it allows petroleum engineers to compare different petroleum

products and also to show the effects of performance additives (Riazi, 2005). This test also
measures the potential impact of source of oil on engine performance. In addition, RVP is a
first test or analysis to define the optimal condition and nature of the feedstock (Rd, 2014).
Petroleum products are usually grouped into three categories which are light distillates (LPG,
gasoline, naphtha), middle distillates (kerosene, diesel), and heavy distillates (heavy fuel oil,
lubricating oils, wax, asphalt). This classification is based on the way crude oil is distilled and
separated into fractions. Kerosene and diesel are classified under middle distillate which has
10 to14 number of carbon for kerosene and 14 to 20 carbons for diesel. While, petrol is such
type of heavy fuel oil which contain 20 to 70 carbon contain. The higher the number of carbon,
which at the top of the fractionating column have lower boiling points, which means on the
earlier statement easier to flame and explode than the fractions at the bottom.

Based on the study by Shepherd & Perez (2008),the RVP is a way to measure how
quickly petroleum products evaporate, to determine the gasoline and other petroleum products
blends where the higher the RVP, the faster the evaporation of petroleum products where more
faster petroleum products evaporates, the more harm to the ozone layer. The expected RVP for
diesel is less than 1.38 kPa, less than 0.28 kPa for kerosene while RVP of petrol is typically in
the range from 40 to 60 kPa (Shepherd & Perez, 2008).

Thus, it can be seen that the actual value obtained through the experiment for all
petroleum products of diesel, kerosene and petrol were slightly different with expected RVP
value that were obtained from theory. The slight difference occurred may be because of the
accuracy measurement device was not quite accurate and apparatus was old and harmed. There
must be some leakage while assemble the liquid chamber to the vapor chamber so it will disturb
the volatility of the fuel. Next, the errors might be because of these three petroleum products
was not mixed properly before being used and tested.

The recommendation for the future improvement is the petroleum products used must
be the new ones, changes for every test and it must be stirred properly before being used. Then,
the equipment must be checked and test before running the experiment to avoid systematic

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errors (errors caused by equipment or machine) that could lead for incorrect value display by
the panel and disrupt the whole process of the experiment. Besides, the physical errors caused
by the experimenters might not have waited for the readings to stabilized and have recorded
down the wrong readings, which could lead to an abnormal trend of results. Thus, the ideal
expected results could not be achieved.

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5.0 TUTORIAL

1. What is the difference between Reid Vapour Pressure (RVP) ad True Vapour Pressure
(TVP)?

Reid vapour pressure (RVP) measures the vapour pressure, volatile crude oil,
and other volatile petroleum products, except for liquefied petroleum gases. It is
defined as the absolute vapour pressure exerted by a liquid (water bath) at 37.8 °C.
While true vapor pressure (TVP) is a common measure of the volatility of petroleum
distillate fuels. It is defined as the equilibrium partial pressure exerted by a volatile
organic liquid as a function of temperature.

2. Discuss the relationship of Reid Vapour Pressure (RVP) between diesel, kerosene,
petrol and lubricating oil.

The higher the vapour pressure, the higher volatility of the petroleum product
by increasing the temperature. Highly volatile petroleum product will vaporize more
readily at a faster rate than a fuel with a lower volatility where a highly volatile fuel is
more likely to form a flammable or explosive mixture with air than a low volatile fuel.
3. Discuss the effects of Reid Vapour Pressure (RVP) on engine performance.

If the Reid Vapour Pressure (RVP) is high, the fuels has a high tendency to
vaporize easily. This is also related to the volatility. Reid vapour pressure measures the
vapour pressure at (100 ˚F). As mentioned earlier, the higher vapour pressure causes
the more fuel to vaporize quickly, and reduce the engine performance and efficiency by
damaging the pistons and also improper combustion.

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6.0 CONLUSION AND RECOMENDATION

CONCLUSION
This experiment objective which is to determine and compare the RVP (Reid
vapour pressure) of three different petroleum products which are diesel, kerosene and
also petrol. This experiment also want to study about the volatility of liquid
hydrocarbons. From the result obtained, it was confirmed that petrol have the highest
average RVP value which are 36.3 kPa followed by diesel which are 2.8 kPa and lastly
is kerosene which are 3.7 kPa. The theory in this is experiment is about the volatility of
the petroleum product as the vapour pressure was affected by the volatility. The higher
the vapour pressure the higher the volatility of the petroleum product by increasing the
temperature. This can be explained by a highly volatile petroleum product will vaporize
at a faster rate compare to low volatile fuel. The RVP value also were said to be
inversely proportional to the viscosity. Higher the viscosity, lower The RVP value it
will be. Although the value from the experiment were slightly different from the
theoretical value, this experiment was successful as the objective of the experiment was
achieved.

RECOMMENDATIONS
The result that obtained from the experiment might have slightly error because
of some obstacle while doing experiment. First problem that has been identified was
the measurement device was not quite accurate and the apparatus was old and harmed.
To overcome this problem, person incahrge for the mechine need to have scheduled
maintenance in to be done so the machine always in good shape. Besides that, the result
also being affected by the leakage while assembling the liquid chamber to the vapour
chamber which disturb the volatility of the fuel. This problem could be detect when the
bubbles appear near the chamber and can be solve by close the machine and replace the
chamber with a new one. Furthermore, in order to ensure this experiment run smoothly,
students should read and study the manual in order to operate the machine. This steps
can reduce the time taken to set up the machine and more effective. Students also should
ask for the technician helps if there are any problems that occur.

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7.0 REFERENCES

1. Demirbas, A., & Bamufleh, H. S. (2017). Petroleum Science and Technology

Optimization of crude oil refining products to valuable fuel blends Optimization of
crude oil refining products to valuable fuel blends. Petroleum Science and
Technology, 35(4), 406–412. https://doi.org/10.1080/10916466.2016.1261162

2. Mužíková, Z., Šimáček, P., Pospíšil, M., Šebor, G., D, Z. M., I, P. Š., … Šebor, G.
(2014). Density , Viscosity and Water Phase Stability of 1-Butanol-Gasoline Blends.
Journal of Fuels, 2014, 1–8. Retrieved from
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jfu/2014/459287/abs/

3. Pandey, S. C., Ralli, D. K., Saxena, A. K., & Alamkhan, W. K. (2004).

Physicochemical characterization and applications of naphtha. Journal of Scientific &
Industrial Research, 63(March), 276–282.

4. Rd, B. (2014). Refinery Intermediate Product Literature Review, (582).

5. Riazi, M. R. (2005). Characterization and Properties of Petroleum Fractions.

Statewide Agricultural Land Use Baseline 2015.
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415324.004

6. Shepherd, J. E., & Perez, F. A. (2008). Kerosene lamps and cookstoves-The hazards
of gasoline contamination. Fire Safety Journal, 43(3), 171–179.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.firesaf.2007.08.001

7. Pandey, S. C., Ralli, D. K., Saxena, A. K., & Alamkhan, W. K. (2004).

Physicochemical characterization and applications of naphtha. Journal of Scientific &
Industrial Research, 63(March), 276–282.

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