Ministry of Higher Education

and Scientific Research

University of Misan
Petroleum Engineering
Department

Experiment NO.3
" POUR POINT & SMOKE POINT "

Prepared by : Karrar Namh.k

Supervisors: Hanoun Hassan
Smoke Point :
This test method provides an indication of
the relative smoke producing properties of
petroleum products such as kerosene’s and
aviation turbine fuels and many others in a
diffusion flame. The smoke point is related
to the hydrocarbon type composition of
such fuels. Generally the more aromatic
the fuel the smokier the flame. A high
smoke point indicates a fuel of low smoke
producing tendency. In this test we use a
special lamp to obtain the smoke point of
kerosene, we burn a wick soaked with
kerosene and we increase the height of the
wick little by little till it starts smoking,
then the height of the flame in millimeters
is considered as the smoke point.
The smoke point test is very important in
evaluating the quality of petroleum
products such as kerosene and aviation
turbine fuels, because it detects
undesirable components of fuel such as
aromatic compounds and sulfur. When the
sample contains big amount of aromatic
compounds such as benzene, toluene or
xylene it produces a lot of smoke in a short
time and the smoke point would be small
and vice versa. So the more aromatic the
product is, the smokier it gets when it
burns. So the smoke point provides a lot of
information.
Aim of experiment:
1)To find the smoke point of kerosene
sample.
2)To find out the quality of the sample
3)To find out the maximum height of the
kerosene flame before it starts making
soot.
4) To know the ability of kerosene sample
to burn at complete combustion and
without smoking.
Procedures :

1)Prepare a piece of extracted and dried

wick (about 125 mm) long and cut 6 mm
of it from the end.
2)Soak the wick in kerosene.
3)Fill the sample container with 20 ml of
kerosene, then place the wick in the wick
tube and the wick tube inside the sample
container.
4)Install the assembly inside the burning
chamber of the lamp.
5)Open the glass door, light the flame and
adjust the wick to be 10 mm high and let it
burn for 5 minutes.
6) Increase the length of the wick slowly
till smoke comes out of the chimney.
7)Lower the candle slowly until the smoke
disappears.
 8)At this point you can take the smoke
point by looking at the reflection of the
flame on the scale and reading its height.
9)To avoid any doubt and error it is
recommended to repeat the experiment
several times and take the average smoke
point.
Pour Point :
The pour point of a petroleum fraction is
the lowest temperature at which the oil
will pour or flow when it is cooled without
stirring under standard conditions Pour
point represents the lowest temperature at
which oil can be stored and still capable of
flowing under gravity. When temperature
is less than pour point of a petroleum
product it cannot be stored or transferred
through pipelines. In crude a high pour
point is generally associated with high
paraffin content. It is related to the amount
of wax content present indicate preferred .
Analyzing the Pour Point of An
Oil :
There are a range of manual and automatic
industry-adopted methods that are used to
measure the pour point of an oil, which are
upheld and approved by the international
standards organization , ASTM
International. For measuring the pour point
of petroleum-based oils, the standard tests
are ASTM D97 (Manual method) and
ASTM D5949(Mechanical method). For
crude oils, the standard test is ASTM
D5853.

ASTM D97 (Manual method) :

ASTM D97 is a manual method used to
determine the pour point of any petroleum-
based oil. In this method, the oil sample is
placed into a vessel and pre-heated, and
this is followed by a cooling stage so that
the oil is at a temperature of 9 °C (48.2 °F)
above its expected pour point. This enables
the formation of paraffin wax crystals.

Aim of experiment:
Determination of the pour point of a
sample of lubricating oil.
Procedure:
1. The specimen is poured to the level
mark into a test jar having a cork.

2. The specimen is heated without stirring

to 98 C above the expected.

3. The test jar is transferred to a water bath

maintained at a lower.

4. Care is taken as not to disturb the

specimen as paraffin wax crystals holding
a thermometer pour point in a bath
maintained at 12 °C above the expected
pour temperature to cool the sample and is
observed for pour point. are formed after
cooling the specimen.

5. The jar is then tilted to check for

movement of the specimen.

6. If the specimen still flows the jar is

returned to the bath until the specimen in
the test jar does not flow when tilted.
7. The jar is then held in a horizontal
position for 5 seconds. If the specimen
shows any movement, the test jar is
replaced in the jacket and the test is
repeated for flow at the next temperature-
3°C lower.

8. This is continued until the specimen in

the jar does not move and temperature is
reported as the pour point.