finding the smoke point of kerosene

1. 1
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

2. 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.
2
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.

3. 3
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.

4. 4
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.

5. 5
Necessary apparatus:
Smoke point lamp and sample of kerosene.
Fig1: smoke point lamp Fig2: kerosene sample

6. 6
The lamp is composed of:
Fig3: lamp body Fig4: candle
Fig5: wick tube Fig6: wick

7. 7
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

8. 8
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
퐴푣푒푟푎푔푒 푠푚표푘푒 푝표푖푛푡 =
22.7 + 21
2
= 21.85 푚푚

9. 9
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.

10. 10
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