CPB30503- Petrochemicals and Petroleum Refining Technology

Experiment 1: Determination of flash point of petroleum products

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1.0 OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this experiment of determination of flash point of petroleum products of

kerosene and diesel are therefore;

i. To determine the flash point of petroleum products using closed cup method (Pensky
Martens apparatus)
ii. To compare the flash points of different petroleum products
iii. To compare the actual flash point with expected flash point of petroleum products
iv. To determine the relationship of flash point of petroleum products between number of
application of the igniter
v. To determine the importance of flash point to petroleum products
CPB30503- Petrochemicals and Petroleum Refining Technology
Experiment 1: Determination of flash point of petroleum products
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2.0 ABSTRACT / SUMMARY

The main purposes of the experiment determination of the flash point of the
petroleum products are to determine the flash point of the petroleum products using closed
cup method (Pensky Martens apparatus), to compare the flash point of different products and
to compare the actual and expected flash point where the kerosene and diesel are compared
while only diesel is used as the sample for the flash point testing. During the experiment, the
result of the actual flash point of diesel is obtained from the last number of application of
igniter which is 28 applications where the increase the number of application, the increase the
flash point. Next, the actual flash point is compared with the expected flash point which is in
range 52 C to 96 C. Then, by comparing the flash point diesel with other petroleum
products of kerosene with the flash point of 38 C (minimum), it can be said that kerosene is a
highly combustible than diesel where kerosene has higher ability to burn at temperatures that
are usually above working temperatures. In addition, the flash point of petroleum product is
also affected by the number of carbon atoms where the higher the number of carbon atom, the
higher the flash point of the petroleum products where petroleum products with number of
carbon atoms of 18 is more combustible than 11 carbon atoms.
CPB30503- Petrochemicals and Petroleum Refining Technology
Experiment 1: Determination of flash point of petroleum products
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3.0 INTRODUCTION AND THEORY

For each of the liquid it has own characteristics which will give their own features that
differentiate between each of them. There are many studies about the physical and chemical
characteristics of a liquid. This study is really important in order to understand about the fluid
itself. This will help suits the liquid for the applications of every sector. One of the crucial
characteristic of the liquid is its flash point. Flash point is said to be the lowest temperature at
which the vapours of a volatile material will start to ignite when supplied with the ignition
source. Basically, the characteristics of the flash point are used to differentiate the
classification of the flammable liquids and combustible liquids such as petrol and the diesel.
Mostly, there are some confusions between the flash point, auto ignition temperature and the
fire point. The auto ignition temperature is the temperature where the vapour ignites
spontaneously without an ignition source. Besides that the fire point is the lowest temperature
at which the vapour continuously burn even after the ignition source remove.

In order to study about the flash point, there are two basic type of measurement which
called as the open cup and closed cup test. Both of these methods are widely used by the
researchers in order to study more about the flash point. Basically in open cup test, it is
conducted inside a vessel which then will be exposed to the air outside. As the result of the
exposure, the temperature of the substance will be raised and an ignition source is passed
over the top of it which the ignition occurs as it reaches the point called flash point. The most
common method used in the open cup measurement is the Cleveland open cup method which
usually used the brass as the vessel.

For the other measurement which is the closed cup, it is a method which conducted
inside a closed vessel which is not open to be exposed to the outside atmosphere. The vessel
will be sealed with the lid before the ignition source is introduced into the vessel itself
allowing for a closer approximation to real life conditions. The well-known method used in
the closed cup measurement is the Pensky Martens, Abel, Tag and also Setaflash which
usually used for in the small scale. In Pensky Martens, it uses a brass cup which filled with a
test specimen and fitted with a cover. The source of heat then will be supplied to the sample
before being stirred at various ranges depends on the material that being used.
CPB30503- Petrochemicals and Petroleum Refining Technology
Experiment 1: Determination of flash point of petroleum products
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The mechanism of the flash point basically can relate to the Boyles Law. In the Boyles
Law, it describes how the pressure tends to increase as the volume decrease in as simple word
the pressure is inversely proportional to the volume.

PV k
P Pressure of gas
V Volume of the gas
k Constant

Equation 1

As the temperature increases the vapour pressure will also increases. As it is

increases, it will cause the concentration of vapour a flammable or combustible liquid in the
air follow to be increases. The temperature will be determined the concentration of vapour of
the flammable liquid in the air. For each flammable or combustible liquid, there will be the
flammable limit where it is different and specific to each liquid.
CPB30503- Petrochemicals and Petroleum Refining Technology
Experiment 1: Determination of flash point of petroleum products
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4.0 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS/ TUTORIAL

Table 1: Petroleum products with actual and expected flash point

Materials Actual Flash Point (C) Expected Flash Point (C)

Kerosene - 38 (minimum)
Diesel 89 52 - 96

Table 2: The flash point (C) of the diesel and the number of application of igniter

Diesel
No. of Application Flash point (C)
0 59.7
1 62
2 63
3 64
4 65
5 66
6 67
7 68
8 69
9 70
10 71
11 72
12 73
13 74
14 75
15 76
16 77
17 78
18 79
19 80
20 81
21 82
22 83
23 84
24 85
25 86
26 87
CPB30503- Petrochemicals and Petroleum Refining Technology
Experiment 1: Determination of flash point of petroleum products
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27 88
28 89
CPB30503- Petrochemicals and Petroleum Refining Technology
E xpe r i m e nt 1: D e t e r mi na t i on of f l a sh poi nt o f pe t r ol e um pr oduc t s Pa ge |7

The flash point of diesel (C) against number of application

100

90
f(x) = 1.01x + 60.83
80 R = 1

70

60 Diesel
Linear (Diesel)
50
Temperature, C Linear (Diesel)
40 Linear (Diesel)

30

20

10

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30

Number of application

Figure 1: Graph of the flash point of diesel (C) against number of application
CPB30503- Petrochemicals and Petroleum Refining Technology
Experiment 1: Determination of flash point of petroleum products
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The objectives of this experiment are to determine the flash point of diesel and to
compare the expected with the actual flash point. The equipment used to determine the actual
flash point is called the ISL FP170 5G and it has been designed to automatically determine
the Pensky Martens Closed Cups Flash Point. The material that was used throughout the
experiment is diesel.

According to Boyles Law, all liquids have their specific vapour pressure and as
the temperature increases, the vapour pressure will also increase. Therefore, it will cause the
increase in the concentration of the vapour increase. So the temperature determine the
concentration of the flammable liquid in the air. In conclusion, flash point is the lowest
temperature where the product must heated at this temperature to give off enough vapour to
form a mixture that can be ignited. Liquids with flash point lower than 37.8C is called the
flammable liquid and the liquids with flash point higher than 60.5C is called the combustible
liquid. Thus, diesel is a combustible liquid.

Based on Rademaeker, Fabiano & Buratti (2013), the expected flash point for
diesel is approximately at 52C to 96C. The actual flash point that was obtained is 89C with
28 number of application. Thus, it means that 89C is the temperature that is needed by the
diesel to be heated to give sufficient vapour to form a mixture with the air to ignite. The
graph also showed that the higher the number of application the higher the temperature and
they only stops when reached the flash point which in this experiment is the 28 th time at
89C.

Besides that, flash point is also used as an indicator if the product was
contaminated or not. If the flash point that was obtained was lower than the expected one, the
product was contaminated by more volatile product. The expected flash point was entered
and set into the equipment by the operator at 80C. The actual flash point obtained was 86C,
which was higher than the expected flash point. Thus, the product was not contaminated by
more volatile product.
CPB30503- Petrochemicals and Petroleum Refining Technology
Experiment 1: Determination of flash point of petroleum products
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Diesel is not carcinogenic and not flammable. Diesel must be heated at a high
temperature to ignite. The air is heated to above the auto ignition temperature by the
compression of the air in the engine and the fuel is then vaporized into the combustion
chamber by the fuel injections. The tiny droplets of diesel are then ignited by the hot air. This
is the reason diesel last longer than petrol motors. Because petrol is more volatile chemical,
by the time the petrol gets inside the combustion chambers it is in vapour phase. However for
diesel, it is less volatile chemical and not fully vaporized. They present as lots of small
droplets which each one of them must be individually burn.

The Pensky Martens Closed Cup Flash Point is an electrical heated cup with
adjustable temperature ramp rate. The number of the application to reach the flash point is
28th times. The number of application shows the number of applying the ignition source. For
diesel, it takes about 28th times of ignition source until it reach it flash point where they can
produce sufficient vapour for ignition.

The significance of using the flash point as it is one of the measures of the
tendency of the test specimen to form a flammable mixture and it is only one number of
properties which must be considered in assessing the overall flammability hazard of a
material. Usually, flash point is used as the shipping and safety regulations to define
flammable and combustible. This test will describe the properties of the materials, products or
assemblies in response to heat and an ignition source under controlled laboratory conditions.
Thus, the results of these test method can be used as an elements of a fire risk assessment.
CPB30503- Petrochemicals and Petroleum Refining Technology
Experiment 1: Determination of flash point of petroleum products
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1. What are the expected flash point of diesel and kerosene?

Based on research on material safety data sheets, the expected flash point of
kerosene are 38C (100 F) minimum (ScienceLab, 2017) while diesel fuel flash
points vary between 52 C and 96 C (126 F and 205 F) with an average 80 C
(176 F) for expected flash point of diesel (Monjasa, 2017).

Flash point refers to the lowest temperature at which vapours of a volatile

material will ignite when given an ignition source. However, flash point is differs
from auto-ignition temperature and fire point where auto-ignition temperature is the
temperature at which vapours ignites spontaneously without an ignition and fire point
is the lowest temperature at which vapour will keep burning after being ignited and
the ignition source removed, respectively. Fire point is higher than flash point because
at flash point, vapours may be reliably expected to cease burning when ignition source
is removed. However, neither flash point nor fire point depends directly on ignition
source temperature where ignition source temperature will be higher than either flash
point or fire point. Flash point is related to the vapour tendency of the petroleum
product functions as an indication of how easy a chemical may burn. In this case,
petroleum product of diesel with higher flash point of 89 C is less combustible or
hazardous than with other petroleum products such as kerosene the lower flash point
of 38 C.
Volatility is tendency of substance to vaporize which petroleum products are
characterized by their vaporizing tendencies. The flash point is related to vapour
tendency of petroleum product where the petroleum product must be heated under
specified conditions of the method to give off sufficient vapour to form a mixture with
air that can be ignited by a specified flame. Volatility is directly related to substances
vapour pressure where at given temperature, petroleum product with higher vapour
pressure vaporizes more readily than lower vapour pressure.
CPB30503- Petrochemicals and Petroleum Refining Technology
Experiment 1: Determination of flash point of petroleum products
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2. What are the actual flash point of diesel and kerosene?

Based on experiment that has been done, the actual flash point of diesel was
89 C. The test on kerosene had not been done because the equipment available in
laboratory was broken down and cannot detect the flash point of kerosene. However,
the actual flash point of kerosene obtained was assumed as same in value with
expected flash point of kerosene which was 38C (100 F) minimum.
In this case, based on the experiment that has been done using petroleum
products of kerosene and diesel, it can be said that kerosene (expected flash point of
38 C minimum) is less combustible than diesel (actual flash point is 89 C) is more
combustible liquids.

3. Is there any difference between expected and actual flash point of the samples?
Discuss.
Yes, there was a slight difference between expected and actual flash point of
the petroleum products of diesel. However, for kerosene, the test on kerosene had not
been done because the equipment available in laboratory was broken down and cannot
detect the flash point of kerosene where the actual flash point of kerosene was
assumed as same in value with expected flash point of kerosene obtained from
materials safety data sheet which is 38C (100 F) minimum. For diesel, there was a
slight difference between expected and actual flash point which are 80 C and 89 C,
respectively. This slight difference occurred may be because of the accuracy
measurement device was not quite accurate and the Pensky Martens apparatus was
old and harmed. Next, the errors might be because of the crude diesel was not mixed
properly before being used and test in Pensky Martens apparatus. Then, even though
the diesel being mixed and stirred during the experiment test but the diesel used was
from recycle where there was might be some impurities and the diesel was
contaminated and there was sediment at bottom of diesel container. The
recommendation for the future improvement is the diesel used must be the new diesel
and the diesel must be stirred properly before being used. Then, the equipment must
be checked and test before running the experiment to avoid systematic errors (errors
caused by equipment or machine).
CPB30503- Petrochemicals and Petroleum Refining Technology
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4. What are the importances of flash point to petroleum products?

The importance of flash point to petroleum products are by knowing the flash
point of the petroleum products, it will be easier for person to use, store and transport
the petroleum products accordingly where most of petroleum products need to be
stored at underground of petrol pump which it gives one an idea about the maximum
temperature below which the petroleum products can be used, prepared, stored and
transported. Next, the flash point helps in determining the nature of fuels
flammability and combustibility where the lower the flash point, the higher flammable
or combustible the fuel of petroleum products. Then, the flash point of the petroleum
product is also used by manufacturer and marketers of petroleum products to detect
contamination where substantially lower flash point than expected for petroleum
product is a reliable indicator that the petroleum product has become contaminated
with more volatile petroleum product such as gasoline (expected flash point is 43 C
or 45 F). The flash point is also used as an aid in establishing the identity of a
particular petroleum product. In addition, the flash point indicates fire hazard of
petroleum products and evaporation loses under high temperature. The flash point is
important in petroleum classification to determine the light or heavy petroleum
products where light crude oil is liquid petroleum that has low density, low specific
gravity, low wax content, high API gravity and flow freely at room temperature due to
the presence of high proportion of light hydrocarbon fractions while heavy crude oil
has high density, high specific gravity, high wax content and low API gravity.
From the viewpoint of safety, the flash point is important as fundamental
reason for requirement of measurements to assess the safety hazard of liquid or semi-
liquid with regard to its flammability and combustible and the to be classified into
groups where the lower the flash point, the higher the risk. The classification is used
to warn of risk and to enable the correct precautions to be taken when using, storing
and transporting the liquid petroleum products. Next, the flash point is also used for
quality control purpose for controlling flammability risk where a change in flash point
indicates the presence of potentially dangerous volatile contaminants or adulteration
of product.
Flash point is descriptive characteristic, to characterize fire hazards of liquids
and also used to distinguish between flammable liquids and combustible liquids
CPB30503- Petrochemicals and Petroleum Refining Technology
Experiment 1: Determination of flash point of petroleum products
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where based on Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (2017), liquids
with the flash point below than 37.8C (100F) is called flammable liquids where
flammable liquids will ignite (catch on fire) and burn easily at normal working
temperatures while the liquids with the flash point in range 37.8 C to 93.3 C (100 F
to 200 F) is classified as combustible liquids which it has the ability to burn at
temperatures that are usually above working temperatures.

5. If you have a sample of unknown and from the flash point test rig, you find out that
the flash point is 40 C, what could the material be?
If I have a sample of unknown and from the flash point test rig which I find
out that the flash point is 40 C, the material could be is kerosene. This is because
kerosene has expected flash point in range between 38 C and 72 C (100 F and
162 F) with 38 C minimum of flash point of kerosene. Kerosene (also known as
paraffin, lamp oil and coal oil) is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived
from petroleum where is widely used as a fuel in industry and households.

Flash point is descriptive characteristic, to characterize fire hazards of liquids

and also used to distinguish between flammable liquids and combustible liquids
where based on Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (2017), liquids
with the flash point below than 37.8C (100F) is called flammable liquids where
flammable liquids will ignite (catch on fire) and burn easily at normal working
temperatures while the liquids with the flash point in range 37.8 C to 93.3 C (100 F
to 200 F) is classified as combustible liquids which it has the ability to burn at
temperatures that are usually above working temperatures.
CPB30503- Petrochemicals and Petroleum Refining Technology
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5.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

It can be concluded that the flash point of diesel is theoritically expected in the range
of 52oC to 96C whereby the actual flash point obtain from this experiment is 89.0C with the
value of expected flash point entered in the equipment is 80C. For every grades of diesel, the
flash point is differ by each other. Diesel can be considered as safer than another petroleum
product since it has the highest value of flash point. Petroleum products with a flash point
below 40C are easily ignited on exposure of flame which may cause burn. Toluene is
normally having low flash point at 40C. Therefore, special precautions are necessary for safe
handling. The flash point of flammable liquid also depends on the number of carbon atom
where the higher the number of carbon atom, the higher the flash point of the petroleum
products.

There are several recommendations should be improved in this experiment. Any

source of ignition should be avoided when handling of flammable and combustible liquid. A
proper storage is required to store the flammable liquid away from ignition factors. Last but
not least, the original sampling should be used to maintain the consistency of the result.
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6.0 REFERENCES

i. Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, CCOHS. (2017). Flammable
and combustible liquids hazards. Retrieved from
https://www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/chemicals/flammable/flam.html

ii. Identification, C. (n.d.). Safety Data Sheet Kerosene NFPA:: Danger.

iii. Janes A. and Chalneux J., 2013, Experimental Determination of Flash Point of
Flammable Liquids Aqueous Solution, Chemical Engineering Transaction, (vol 31, pg
943 948).

iv. Of, I., & Substance, T. H. E. (n.d.). MSDS Material Safety Data Sheet GAS OIL /
DIESEL MSDS Material Safety Data Sheet GAS OIL / DIESEL.

v. Pensky-Martens Flash Point Tester: PMA 5 Anton Paar (2017). Retrieved from
http://www.anton-paar.com/corp-en/products/details/pma-5/

vi. Safety data sheets diesel. (2017). Monjasa. Retrieved from

https://monjasa.com/sites/monjasa.com/files/downloads/msds_gas_oil__monjasa.pdf

vii. Safety data sheets kerosene. (2017). ScienceLab. Retrieved from

www.sciencelab.com/msds.php?msdsId=9924436

viii. Speight, J.G. (2001).Handbook of Petroleum Analysis. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

ix. Standard Test Methods for Flash Point by Pensky-Martens Closed Cup Tester
ASTM International (2017). Retrieved from https://www.astm.org/Standards/D93.htm

x. The Chemistry of Fuel : Petrol vs Diesel Dr Chemical (2012). Retrieved from

http://drchemical.com.au/the-chemistry-of-fuel-petrol-vs-diesel-2

7.0 APPENDICES
CPB30503- Petrochemicals and Petroleum Refining Technology
Experiment 1: Determination of flash point of petroleum products
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Figure: Expected flash point for kerosene

(ScienceLab, 2017)
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Experiment 1: Determination of flash point of petroleum products
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Figure: Expected flash point for diesel

(Monjasa, 2017)