Chapter Four: Evaluation of Crude Oil Petroleum Refining

Evaluation of Crude Oil

Evaluation of crude oil is important for refiner because it gives the
following types of information:
1. Base and general properties of the crude oil.
2. Presence of impurities such as sulfur, salt, and emulsions which
cause general difficulties in processing.
3. Operating o r design data. Primarily this necessitates curves of
temperature and gravity vs. per cent distilled.
a. Fractionating or true boiling point distillation curve.
b. Equilibrium or flash-vaporization curve.
c. API or specific gravity curve of each fraction distilled.
4. Curves of the properties of the fractions vs. percent distilled (mid per cent
curves) or the average properties of a series of fractions vs. Percentage
yield (yield curve) by which common realization of yields can be prepared.
Base of crude oil
The crude oil can be classified into:
1) Paraffinic base crude (P)
2) Intermediate base crude (IN)
3) Naphthenic base crude (N)

Some authors have referred the naphthenic base as asphaltic base. The name
naphthenic is more convincing as it represents the homologous series whereas
asphalt is a polymeric condensed material having very high carbon to hydrogen
ratio of no equable nature of general formula.

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Chapter Four: Evaluation of Crude Oil Petroleum Refining

Classification Methods:

1- Characterization Factor(Watson Factor) (C.F), (K)

The most widely used index is characterization factor (Watson, Nelson
and Murphy). It was originally defined as:
No. K Units of Temperature Tb
1
ᵒ
K

2 √
ᵒ
R

Where;
Tb : is molal average boiling point ( MABP)
ₒ ₒ
SG: is the specific gravity at 60 F or 15 C

It has since related to viscosity, aniline point, molecular weight, critical

temperature, percentage of hydrocarbon etc.
ᵒ
 If Tb in K units then K-values
No. K value Base of Crude Oil
1 10.5-11.5 Paraffinic Base (P)
2 11.5-12.1 Intermediate Base (IN)
3 12.1-12.5 Naphthenic base (N)
4 12.08 Naphthenic – Intermediate base (NIN)
5 11.47 Naphthenic – Intermediate base (NIN)

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Chapter Four: Evaluation of Crude Oil Petroleum Refining

ᵒ
 If Tb in R units then K-values

No. K value Base of Crude Oil

1 If K ≥ 12.15 Paraffinic Base (P)
2 If K< 11.5 Naphthenic Base (N)
3 If K between 11.5-12.15 Intermediate Base (IN)

K-value of a mixture is the sum of the components K-value multiplied by

their weight fractions in petroleum mixture.
Kmis= K1W1+ K2W2 + K3W3 + …
Where;
W1,W2,W3 are weight fractions of different components.
K1, K2, K3 are respective characterization factors.

2- Correlation Index(C.I)
Like (C.F) related to boiling point and gravity

Where;
ₒ
Tb is the molal average boiling point ( K)
ₒ
SG is the specific gravity at 60 F

No. CI value Base of Crude Oil

1 If C I= 0-15 Paraffinic Base (P)
2 If C I= 15-50 Intermediate Base (IN)
3 If C I>50 Naphthenic base (N)
Fig.12 Relationships between the slopes of various distillation curves
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Chapter Four: Evaluation of Crude Oil Petroleum Refining

Calculation of (K) (Characterization Factor) for the Crude Oil

√

Tb or MABP temperatures in Rankin degrees( ᵒR)

1. Calculate the TVABP using 10, 30, 50, 70 and 90 if there are
available data

or (20, 50, and 80 or 30, 50 and 70) volume % TBP temperature If

such data is not available.

All temperatures in ᵒF
Hint: if there are atmospheric pressure and vacuum pressure., then it must
correct the true boiling temperatures (TBP) under vacuum pressure to
atmospheric pressure.
2. Calculate (the 10 to 90% slope) of the whole curve:

or (the 20 to 80% slope): or ( the 30 to 70% slope)

3. Using a proper correction factor, convert T (Volume Average Boiling

Point) to T (Molal Average Boiling Point): (TMABP=TVABP+∆T). or

convert T (Volume Average Boiling Point) to T (Mean Average Boiling Point):

(TMABP=TVABP-∆T)
To calculate ∆T:
 Some times given as value such : 120 ᵒF or 90 ᵒF or ....etc.
 Some times given as relation such:

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Chapter Four: Evaluation of Crude Oil Petroleum Refining

 Some times given as figures such figure( 10)

4. Constract a spg mid percent curve and evaluate the spg for the
whole crude.
5. K is found as a function of TMABP and spg.

Ex.1 Evaluate the base of crude oil, which has Tb =450 ᵒF and Spgavg.= 0.85?

Ex.2 For 100 barrels (API Gravity 36.3) of Whole crude Oil, the TBP Data
TBP, ºF 32 577 211 677 768 165 326 717 819 798
Vol. %. 5 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 71

1. Evaluate this Crude Oil?

2. Calculate the weight of this Crude Oil.

Solution

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Chapter Four: Evaluation of Crude Oil Petroleum Refining

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Chapter Four: Evaluation of Crude Oil Petroleum Refining

Ex.3 For crude oil given in table below:

1. Draw an assay curve.

2. Evaluate the crude oil given in table below by K-factor method, 𝞓T using
fig.(10).

3. Evaluate the same crude oil by Correlation Index(C.I) method.

Vol. %. TBP (ºF) ºAPI

0 40 ----

20 200 40

40 280 35

68 330 30

80 410 26

90 500 25

95 520 20

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 Chapter Four: Evaluation of Crude Oil Petroleum Refining

Ex.4 ( Use of Gravity Mid percent Curve) (Nelson p/106)

Compute the spg of a 41.4 API (0.8183 spg) mixed base crude oil from the
spg mid percent

Fraction Range of Spg Fraction Range of spg

No. % No. %
1 0-5 0.6506 11 50-55 0.8280
2 5-10 0.6939 12 55-60 0.8388
3 10-15 0.7227 13 60-65 0.8498
4 15-20 0.7420 14 65-70 0.8602
5 20-25 0.7583 15 70-75 0.8713
6 25-30 0.7720 16 75-80 0.8827
7 30-35 0.7844 17 80-85 0.8939
8 35-40 0.7958 18 85-90 0.9065
9 40-45 0.8067 19 90-100 0.9340
10 45-50 0.8170

Solution:

( )
Spg of C.O =

= 0.8171

Computed Sp.gr = 0. 8171, Actual Sp.gr = 0.8183 reasonable check (good for most
engineer design work), See fig (7).

Fig (7): Gravity mid per cent curve. (From, Nelson, W. L, 1958)
Husham Al.Tameemi