Thermal analysis of petroleum products

Abstract

A review is given concerning the application of thermal methods of analysis, viz. differential thermal analysis (DTA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetry (TG), derivative TG (DTG), dilatometry (DT) and penetrometry (TMA), for the investigation of petroleum products (fuel and lubricating oils, greases, paraffin waxes, petrolatums and asphalts). The presented studies include phase transitions, problems concerning the evaporation of volatile components from heavy fractions, determination of the thermal stability under atmospheric and oxygen conditions, the kinetics of these processes, as well as a study of the thermal decomposition. Particular attention is paid to works dealing with the possibility of utilization of the methods of thermal analysis for evaluation of the quality of commercial petroleum products as well as for qualitative and quantitative control of their composition. Moreover, the substitution for the rapid and fully automated methods of thermal analysis of a few expensive and time-consuming methods of classical analysis in control industrial laboratories is also pointed out.