Method for Estimating Boiling Temperatures of Crude Oils

Abstract

Evaporation is often the dominant mechanism for mass loss during the first few days following an oil spill. The initial boiling point of the oil and the rate at which the boiling point changes as the oil evaporates are needed to initialize some computer models used in spill response. The lack of available boiling point data often limits the usefulness of these models in actual emergency situations. A new computational method was developed to estimate the temperature at which a crude oil boils as a function of the fraction evaporated using only standard distillation data, which are commonly available. This method employs established thermodynamic rules and approximations, and was designed to be used with automated spill-response models. Comparisons with measurements show a strong correlation between results obtained with this method and measured values.