Do the True Boiling-Point Distillation Yields of Crude Oil Blends Obey the Additive Blending Rule?

Abstract

Twelve crude oil blends prepared from seven individual crude oils and an imported atmospheric residue were characterized through a true boiling point (TBP) distillation analysis and their density. When comparing the measured TBP fraction yields with those estimated through the application of the additive blending rule, it was found that, for four crude oil blends, the additive blending rule was valid, while for the remaining eight crude oil blends, deviations of the measured TBP yields from the estimated ones were bigger than the TBP analysis’s repeatability limits. By the use of intercriteria analysis evaluation of the data for the deviation of the TBP yields from the additive blending rule and the molar excess volume of the crude oil blends, statistically meaningful relations between the delta TBP yields of light and heavy naphtha, as well as vacuum residue with the molar excess volume, were found. The higher the magnitude of the crude oil blend’s molar excess volume, the bigger the deviations of the TBP yields of naphtha and vacuum residue are. The bigger the deviation of the crude oil blend’s behavior from that of the regular solution, as quantified by the molar excess volume, the bigger the deviations of the TBP yields of naphtha and vacuum residue are.