ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Improvements in the selection of real components forming a substitute mixture for petroleum fractions

Egon Eckert and Tomáš Vaněk

Department of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Chemical Technology, Technická 5, 166 28 Prague, Czech Republic

E-mail: Egon.Eckert@vscht.cz

Received: 25 August 2008  Revised: 8 January 2009  Accepted: 9 January 2009

Abstract: Complex mixtures, particularly petroleum fractions, usually need to be suitably modeled before providing the simulation and other types of chemical engineering calculations. The most convenient way is to describe the original mixture by a substitute mixture. The formerly published approach based on the employment of substitute mixtures of real components can be improved in order to get a closer match between the behavior of the original and substitute mixtures. In the first phase of the algorithm, a new concept of a band around the characterization curves brings wider possibilities for the selection of real components into the substitute mixture. The second phase, which is used to determine the composition of the substitute mixture, can be also improved by considering the global or bulk properties of the original mixture if available. Typically, some of the properties e.g. liquid density, molecular mass and PNA (Paraffinic/Naphthenic/Aromatic carbon) analysis can be measured and used to improve the adjustment of the composition. The improved algorithm is illustrated by an example.

Keywords: characterization procedures - TBP curve - petroleum fractions - substitute mixtures - PNA analysis

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.2478/s11696-009-0040-8

Chemical Papers 63 (4) 399–405 (2009)