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Petroleum department

Second stage

Group: B

Oil Properties Lab

Name of experiment:

Smoke Point

Date of experiment: October 26th 2014

Prepared by:

Muhammad Faisal

Muhammad Nawzad

Nariman Tofiq Ibrahim Sharif

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Introduction:

This test method provides an indication of the relative smoke producing properties of petroleum products such as kerosene’s and aviation turbine fuels and many others in a diffusion flame. The smoke point is related to the hydrocarbon type composition of such fuels. Generally the more aromatic the fuel the smokier the flame. A high smoke point indicates a fuel of low smoke producing tendency. In this test we use a special lamp to obtain the smoke point of kerosene, we burn a wick soaked with kerosene and we increase the height of the wick little by little till it starts smoking, then the height of the flame in millimeters is considered as the smoke point.

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Aim of experiment:

1) To find the smoke point of kerosene sample.

2) To find out the quality of the sample.

3) To find out the maximum height of the kerosene flame before it

starts making soot.

4) To know the ability of kerosene sample to burn at complete

combustion and without smoking.

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Significance and use:

The smoke point test is very important in evaluating the quality of

petroleum products such as kerosene and aviation turbine fuels,

because it detects undesirable components of fuel such as

aromatic compounds and sulfur. When the sample contains big

amount of aromatic compounds such as benzene, toluene or

xylene it produces a lot of smoke in a short time and the smoke

point would be small and vice versa. So the more aromatic the

product is, the smokier it gets when it burns. So the smoke point

provides a lot of information.

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Necessary apparatus:

Smoke point lamp and sample of kerosene.

Fig1: smoke point lamp Fig2: kerosene sample

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The lamp is composed of:

Fig3: lamp body Fig4: candle

Fig5: wick tube Fig6: wick

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Procedures:

1) Prepare a piece of extracted and dried wick (about 125 mm)

long and cut 6 mm of it from the end.

2) Soak the wick in kerosene.

3) Fill the sample container with 20 ml of kerosene, then place the

wick in the wick tube and the wick tube inside the sample

container.

4) Install the assembly inside the burning chamber of the lamp.

5) Open the glass door, light the flame and adjust the wick to be

10 mm high and let it burn for 5 minutes.

6) Increase the length of the wick slowly till smoke comes out of

the chimney.

7) Lower the candle slowly until the smoke disappears.

8) At this point you can take the smoke point by looking at the

reflection of the flame on the scale and reading its height.

9) To avoid any doubt and error it is recommended to repeat the

experiment several times and take the average smoke point.

Fig7: Typical Flame Appearances

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Calculations:

In the lab we made two observations (i.e. we repeated the

experiment twice) and we obtained two slightly different results:

Smoke point #1= 22.7 mm

Smoke point #2= 21 mm

𝐴𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑠𝑚𝑜𝑘𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡 =22.7 + 21

2= 21.85 𝑚𝑚

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Discussion:

1) What is the significance of smoke point test?

It indicates relative smoke producing property of petroleum

products and the quality of the product.

2) How many observations that you should do to get the right

result?

It is recommended to do several observations to get a pure

result.

3) Draw typical flame appearance.

4) Why the results are different when we repeat the experiment?

Because of the human error.

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References:

http://www.astm.org/Standards/D1322.htm

http://www.iso.org/iso/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=8093

http://www.slideshare.net/areesalah/smoke-point