White spirit vs Kerosene

Study the test reports of HEJ and HDIP in order to prove

that consignment imported by IPC is White Spirit instead
of Kerosene
Humaira Athar
10/25/2017

Scope of Work: To evaluate the given test reports of HEJ and HDIP that had been performed on a sample from imported
consignment of white spirit in bulk. The sample from the consignment was evaluated by both the governing bodies, the
chemical composition and other physical properties were determined. On the basis of chemical composition and
physical properties it’s concluded that the imported consignment is white spirit and is not equivalent to kerosene by any
means.
Table of contents
1. Petroleum 2

1.1. Kerosene 2

1.2. White Spirit 2

2. Chemical Composition of sample 2

2.1. Chemical composition (Nature of HC chain) 2

2.2. Chemical composition (Molecular Breakdown of HC chain) 3

2.3. Chemical composition (Detailed Breakdown of HC chain) 4

3. Physical Properties of sample 4

3.1. Flash Point 5

3.2. IBP 5

3.3. 10% recovery 5

3.4. 50% recovery 5

3.5. FBP 5

3.6. Saybolt Color 5

3.7. Aromatic Content 5

3.8. Kauri Butanol 6

3.9. Sp. Gravity 6

3.10. Strong Acid Value 6

3.11. Copper Corrosion 6

4. Conclusion 6

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 1. Petroleum
Petroleum is a naturally occurring, yellow-to-black liquid found in geological formations beneath the Earth's surface.
Components of petroleum are separated using a technique called fractional distillation i.e separation of a liquid mixture
into fractions differing in boiling point by means of distillation, typically using a fractionating column. The atmospheric
distillation splits up the crude oil into four different categories depending on the boiling point. These categories are
defined as light distillates, middle distillates, heavy distillates and bottoms.

1.1. Kerosene
Kerosene is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum, widely used as a fuel in industry as well
as households. It is a thin, clear liquid formed from hydrocarbons obtained from the fractional distillation of petroleum
between 150 °C and 275 °C, resulting in a mixture with a density of 0.78–0.81 g/cm³ composed of C6 and C16
hydrocarb.ons.

1.2. White Spirit

The straight run kerosene from CDU is fractionally distilled to form white spirit. There are three types of white spirits i.e
low flash (IBP 130°C-144°C), regular (IBP 145°C-174°C) and high flash point (IBP 175°C-200°C). Most commonly used is
regular grade. The constituents are a mixture of saturated aliphatic and alicyclic C7- C12 hydrocarbons.

2. Chemical Composition of sample

The chemical composition as specified in annex 1 of HEJ report, we split up the composition in three different ways i.e.
by nature of hydrocarbon chain, molecular breakdown and detailed bifurcation.

2.1. Chemical Composition (Nature of HC chains)

monocyclic alkanes
0%

Aromatic
Content
n-alkanes 25%
35%
Branched alkanes
27%

Alicyclic
13%

Table 1

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  By looking at the chemical composition of our sample sated in table 1 we can see that about 13% of the total
composition consists of alicyclic hydrocarbons, which is a significant characteristic of white spirit. We do not fin d
alicyclic compounds in kerosene.
 Moreover, a typical composition of kerosene should have at least 70% of n-alkanes, branched alkanes and
monocyclic alkanes but when this sample was evaluated we got approximately 62% of the said mixture. This
proves that the sample evaluated cannot be kerosene.

2.2. Chemical Composition (Molecular breakdown of HC chains)

30

25

20
Percentage

15

10

0
C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C16+
%age 0.759 2.058 6.155 24.442 27.479 24.493 6.928 2.415 0.155 2.029 0.245 2.842

Table 2

 By looking at the data in table 2, it gives a clear picture that major sample constitutes of C7-C12 hydrocarbon,
round about 92% of the total composition. This matches the definition of white spirit.
 If the sample evaluated would be kerosene then the majority of composition would consist of C10 or higher,
whereas the C10-C16 components in this sample consist only of 66%.

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 2.3. Chemical Composition (Detailed breakdown of HC chains)

30

25

20

15

10

0
C6 C7 C8 C9 C10 C11 C12 C13 C14 C15 C16 C16+
Aromatic 0 0.781 2.375 8.512 10.889 2.518 0.091 0 0 0 0 0
monocyclic alkanes 0.102 0 0 0 0.275 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Alicyclic 0.075 0.404 1.566 5.61 4.353 0.151 0.097 0 0 0 0 0
Branched alkanes 0.081 0.449 0.407 5.859 5.063 7.675 0.973 2.001 0 1.907 0.193 2.842
n-alkanes 0.501 0.424 1.807 4.461 6.899 14.149 5.767 0.414 0.155 0.122 0.052 0

Table 3

 The basis chemical composition of kerosene starts from C10- C16 hydrocarbons. With this detailed breakdown we can
see the alicyclic hydrocarbons are present in the range of C6-C11, which means that these hydrocarbons are produced
under certain conditions when kerosene is treated and is fractionally distilled, thus forming smaller hydrocarbons chains.

3. Physical Properties

HDIP Report HEJ Report Kerosene White Spirit Standard

(ASTM D3699-13b) (ASTM D235-02)
Flash point 31°C 34°C 38°C 38°C
IBP 141°C 144°C --- 149°C
10% Vol. recovery 161°C 161°C 205°C ---
50% Vol. recovery 181°C 181°C --- 185°C
90% Vol. recovery 205°C 205°C --- ---
FBP 252°C 230°C 300°C ---
Recovery at 200 °C 89% 89% --- ---
Saybolt Color --- +29 Not darker than +16 not darker than +25
Aromatic Content (%) --- 25.166 8 - 22
Kauri-Butanol value --- --- --- 34 - 43
Sp. Gravity 0.791 0.795 --- 0.754 – 0.820
Strong Acid Number --- Neutral --- Neutral
Copper Corrosion --- 1A --- 2A
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Table 4
Table 4. shows the comparison of HDIP and HEJ reports with the ASTM standards of Kerosene and White Spirit. We’ll
elaborate each point I detail below:

3.1. Flash point

The flash point of both Kerosene and white spirit is the same therefore we cannot distinguish between them only on the
basis of flash point.

3.2. IBP
The IBP of White Spirit as per ASTM D235-02 is 149°C which is quite close to the HDIP and HEJ reports i.e. 141°C and
144°C respectively.

3.3. 10% Recovery

As per ASTM D3699-13b standards at 205°C only 10% of kerosene can be recovered. Whereas, the sample analyzed by
HDIP and HEJ at 205°C, 90% of the sample had been recovered. If the sample was of kerosene like nature then it must
have the boiling point close to Kerosene standard ASTM D3699-13b. This clearly shows that the sample analysed by HDIP
and HEJ is not kerosene.

3.4. 50% Recovery

As per ASTM D235-02 standards 50% of white spirit is recoverable at 185°C. This value is quite close to the HDIP and HEJ
report, which states that 50% of the sample was recovered at 181°C. Hence the sample analysed is white spirit instead
of kerosene.

3.5. FBP
As per ASTM D3699-13b standards the FBP of kerosene is 300°C, whereas the FBP of samples analysed by HDIP and HEJ
states 252°C and 230°C respectively. This is very far away from the FBP of kerosene, hence the analysed sample cannot
be kerosene.

3.6. Saybolt Color

ASTM D156 states that saybolt color -16 is for the darkest petroleum liquid while +30 is for the lightest. As, the standard
of white spirit ASTM D235-02 states that the sample shouldn’t be darker than 25; our evaluated sample gives a value of
+29 which means it’s lighter than +25. For kerosene, the saybolt color is darker i.e. +16. Again, this is a positive that the
sample is meeting white spirit standard.

3.7. Aromatic Content

ASTM D235-02 gives a range of aromatics from 8-22%, the sample analysed, however has 25.166%, which is slightly
higher than the standards. But only this reason is not sufficient enough to declare this sample as kerosene like.

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3.8. Kauri-Butanol value
This value is very important for the classification of white spirits as per ASTM D235-02, but this is performed neither by
HDIP nor HEJ for identification of white spirit.

3.9. Sp. Gravity

The range of sp. Gravity as per ASTM D235-02 is 0.754 – 0.820. Tests performed by HDIP gives a value of 0.791 while
that of HEJ states 0.795. Both meet the above stated standard.

3.10. Strong Acid No

As per ASTM D235-02, our sample was evaluated as neutral.

3.11. Copper Corrosion

Standard test to evaluate corrosiveness is stated in ASTM D130. The most corrosive result will show 4c whereas least
corrosive gives 1a. The sample evaluated gives a value of 1a whereas ASTM D235-02 gives an allowance of 2a for copper
corrosion test.

4. Conclusion
By evaluating the chemical and physical properties it’s quite clear that the imported consignment is White Spirit. There is
not any single point which makes it close to kerosene as per my findings.