Article,
Measurement and prediction of solubility of petroleum waxes in organic solvents
Fuel, 76 (7): 625--630 (May 1997)Xc417 Times Cited:20 Cited References Count:14.
Abstract
A microscopic procedure is suggested for the measurement of wax dissolution (solubility), wax appearance and gel formation temperatures of n-alkanes and petroleum waxes in organic solvents. All three characteristics can be measured in a single experiment and are better in repeatability and accuracy than those obtained from the corresponding ASTM procedures. The method has the advantage of no restrictions on the nature, type or colour of the sample (only a very small amount of which is needed) and the gel structure can be observed and a photomicrograph recorded if desired. The equations developed by earlier workers for predicting solubility of n-alkanes and their binary mixtures are modified by considering the contributions of all solid-solid transitions, and are used to calculate the dependence of solubility on the concentration of waxes in some organic solvents. If wax is assumed to be a single-component system (n-alkane components forming solid solutions), all the earlier as well as the presently modified equations show only order-of-magnitude agreement with the experimental solubility. Considering wax instead as a multicomponent system of n-alkanes, a new solubility equation is developed, giving calculated values in good agreement with the experimental values. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.
