Ministry of Higher Education

and Scientific Research

University of Misan
Petroleum Engineering
Department

Experiment NO.4
"Softening Point& Aniline Point"

Prepared by : Karrar Namh.k

Supervisors: Hanoun Hassan
Softening Point :
Asphalt (called bitumen in Europe) is a
very complex combination of high
molecular weight organic compounds
containing a relatively high proportion of
hydrocarbons having carbon numbers
greater than C25.o Asphalts are comprised
asphaltenes 5-25 %, resins 15-25 %,
aromatic 45-60 % of the weight of the
asphalt) and saturate components 5-20 %.
It also contains small amount of various
metals such as nickel, iron or vanadium
Asphalt is a petroleum product that is
produced from vacuum distillation
residues. It is separated the raffinate from
a residual oil in a deasphalting process.
Bitumen are viscoelastic materials without
a definite melting point. Instead, as the
temperature rises, these materials slowly
change to softer and less viscous liquids.
For this reason, the determination of
'softening point' must be softening point is
useful in the classification of asphalt, and
is indicative of the tendency of the
material to flow at high temperatures
encouptered.in service Softening point by
the Ring and-Ball Test is a valuable
consistency test. The softening point value
has particular significance for materials
which are to be used as thick films such as
joint and crack fillers and roofing
materials. high softening point ensures that
they will not flow in service. For a
bitumen of a given penetration
(determined at 25°C), the higher the
softening point the lower the temperature
sensitivity.
Aim of experiment:
determine the softening point of bitumen
by means of the Ring-and Ball apparatus.
Apparatus & Materials used :
1- Rings-two square-shouldered brass
rings conforming to the dimensions .
2- Pouring Plate-a flat, smooth, brass
plate.
3- Balls-two steel balls, 9.5 mm in
diameter, each having a mass of 3.50 g .
4- Ball-Centering Guides-two brass guides
for centering the each ring) . resistant glass
meets this requirement). a horizontal
position.
5- Bath-a glass vessel, capable of being
heated, (an 800-mL beaker of heat .
6- Ring Holder and Assembly-a brass
holder designed to support the two rings in
bottom of the shouldered rings in the ring
holder shall be 25 mm above the plate, and
the lower surface of the bottom plate shall
be 16 mm from the bottom of the bath.
bottom of the bath is level with the bottom
of the rings and not touching them or the
ring holder.
7- Thermometer: thermometer shall be
suspended .
8- A sample of asphalt
Procedure:
1- Specimens are prepared in precisely
dimensioned brass rings and maintained at
a temperature not less than 10 °C below
the expected softening point for at least 30
minutes before the test .
2- The rings and assembly, and two ball
bearings, are placed in a liquid bath
Freshly boiled distilled water is used for
bitumen with a softening point of 80 .C or
below, and glycerin is used for softening
point greater than 80 C).
 3- A 9.5 mm steel ball bearing (weighing
3.50 0.05 g) is centered each specimen and
heat is then applied to the beaker so as to
raise the temperature by 5+ 0.5 °C per
minute.
4- The temperature at which each bitumen
specimen touches the base plate i recorded
in °C.
5- The mean temperature of the two
specimens (which shall not differ by more
than 1⁰ C) is recorded as the softening
point
aniline point :
What is aniline? An organic base
belonging to the phenyl amines. It may be
regarded as ammonia in which one
hydrogen atom has been replaced by the
radical phenyl. It is a colorless, oily liquid,
originally obtained from indigo by
distillation, but now largely manufactured
from coal tar or nitrobenzene as a base
from which many brilliant dyes are made.
The aniline point is a physical
characteristic of hydrocarbon compounds,
such as oils, and refers to the minimum
temperature at which the hydrocarbon and
the same amount of the compound aniline
(C5H5NH2) are perfectly miscible. High
aniline point The greater the aniline point,
the lower the aromatics in diesel oil. A
higher aniline point also indicates a higher
proportion of paraffin. At temperatures
below this point, a mixture of the
compound and an equal volume of aniline
will not dissolve together. Cetane number
or CN is an indicator of the combustion
speed of diesel fuel. The CN is an
important factor in determining the quality
of diesel fuel. CN is a measurement of the
combustion quality of diesel fuel during
compression ignition. It is significant
expression of the quality of a diesel fuel. A
number of other measurements determine
overall diesel fuel quality - these other
measures of diesel fuel quality include
density, lubricity, cold-flow properties,
and sulfur content .

Aim of experiment:
Determination of aniline point of a given
sample.
Apparatus and materials:
1. Test tube, approximately 25 mm in
diameter and 150 mm in length, made of
heat resistant glass
2. Stirrer, manually operated, metal,
approximately 2 mm in diameter
3. Stand and clamp
4. Water bath
5. Thermometer
6. Aniline
Procedure:
At first Clean and dry the ‘U’ tube and
arrange the apparatus desired. Then we
add 5ml of distilled aniline and 5ml of
given sample (kerosene) in the ‘U’ tube, it
will form two layers. Arrange the
apparatus with stirrers in such way that
liquid in ‘U’ tube and the paraffin of the
beaker are stirred simultaneously. Switch
on the heater to heat the paraffin at a
controlled rate, so there is no much
difference in temp. of paraffin bath and
‘U’ tube. The minimum temp. at which
two layers give a single phase is noted as
aniline point. Now stirring of ‘U’ tube
mixture is stopped, and mixture is allowed
to cool. Temp. at which two layers are
formed is also considered as aniline point.
In the lab we placed an equal amount of
aniline and crude oil product in a tube
(5ml) and mixed them. (we used kerosene
and diesel in our experiment).