SUMMARY

In this experiment, it was conducted using ASTM D323. There are several objective
which are to determine the vapor pressure of petroleum product and compare the Reid Vapor
Pressure of different petroleum product. They are kerosene, diesel, lubricating oil and petrol. The
device that used consists of two chambers which are the vapor chamber (upper section) and
liquid chamber (lower section), pressure gauge and water bath. The vapor pressure apparatus was
placed in the water bath when the temperature reach 37.8℃. The reading of the vapor pressure
was taken within 5 minutes interval and this step was performed for 3 times until 15 minutes to
achieve the average pressure. Reid Vapor pressure is one of the method to test the measurement
and volatility of petroleum product. RVP was stated in kilopascal. Volatility is the property of
liquid that defines its evaporation characteristic where the volatility must be high enough to
avoid vapor lock, vaporization loses, air pollution and unsafe storage and handling. The average
of RVP for diesel, kerosene, and petrol are 4.7kPa, 1.93kPa, and 36.8kPa respectively. From the
result obtained, petrol has the highest RVP among these two petroleum product, followed by
diesel and kerosene where kerosene has the lowest RVP value which is 1.93kPa. Petrol is high
volatile petroleum product that can vaporize easily, thus it explained why it has the highest vapor
pressure but lower viscosity. (Pandey et al., 2004). Based on the theory the lower viscosity, the
higher Reid Vapor Pressure value. As a conclusion, the actual values obtained was the same with
the expected from theory.
INRODUCTION
Petroleum product have many of characteristic that need to be take care of. One of the
importance characteristic is volatility. Volatility refers to the tendency of the substance to
vaporize at a given temperature. In automotive industry, the volatility of fuel need to be at
acceptable for engine start-up, warm-up, throttle, and acceleration response under normal driving
condition. The substance with a high vapor pressure will vaporize faster than the substance that
has low vapor pressure. Therefore, the more volatility of the substance will contribute to the
higher pressure of the vapor in dynamic equilibrium with its vaporizing substance. There are two
type of device that can measure the volatility of the substance which is Reid Vapor Pressure
(RVP) and True Vapor Pressure (TVP). Reid Vapor Pressure is a testing method in measure the
vapor pressure of a substance such as petroleum product which are kerosene, petrol, diesel and
others. At temperature 37.8℃, RVP also can be define as the absolute pressure exerted by a
mixture that can be determined from a vapor to liquid ratio of 4. The RVP is more convenient
approximation of the absolute vapor pressure that vaporizes at 37.8℃ compare to TVP. The
main purpose of this experiment are to determine the Reid Vapor Pressure of petroleum product
and compare it. The RVP was tested on four different petroleum product which are petrol, diesel
and kerosene.
THEORY

One of the important physical property for volatile liquid is vapor pressure. This is
because at 37.8℃ petroleum product and crude oils used vapor pressure to determine the initial
boiling point at above 0℃. At atmospheric pressure, the liquid changes its state to gas through its
bulk when the liquid has reached its boiling point and it was called normal boiling point.
Depends on the temperature, vapor pressure and volatility, molecules has a tendency to escape
from liquid phase to gases phase. The higher volatility and higher vapor pressure, will be low
tendency of molecules to escape it s phase. Usually, the petroleum product was grouped into
three categories which are light distillate (LPG, gasoline, naphtha), middle distillate (kerosene,
diesel) and heavy distillate (heavy fuel oil, lubricating oil, wax, and asphalt). The classification
of petroleum product distinguish the carbon contain. At the top of the fractioning column have a
lower boiling points which is lower the number of carbon. This means the higher the vapor
pressure and the higher the volatility of fuel will vaporize more at a faster rate than a fuel with a
lower volatility. Petroleum product at top distillate which are high volatile fuel tends to flame
and explode easily than the fractions at the bottom. The RVP for petrol is typically in the range
from 40 to 60 kPa or 6 to 9 psia.(Joseph E.Shepherd, 2007)