2022 Volume 15 Issue 2 Pages 85-94
Since the flash points of petroleum-based solvents, which are multi-component industrial products, can change as the evaporation progresses, it is difficult to predict the flash point accurately. In this study, petroleum-based solvents (petroleum ether, white gasoline, benzine, lacquer thinner, paint thinner) were selected as samples and investigated a method for predicting the flash point. Evaporated samples with mass loss fractions of 0, 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 were prepared by weathering the solvents. We calculated the component compositions from the area percentage of the peaks of the total ion chromatogram obtained by GC/MS analysis and found out the changes in the composition of petroleumbased solvents with the progress of evaporation. Vapor pressure constants were derived from the saturated vapor pressure measurements of the evaporated samples and a calculation method for the saturated vapor pressure at an arbitrary temperature and mass loss fraction was presented. We assumed that vapor concentration at flash point is equal to lower explosion limit and predicted the flash point of evaporated samples by using the component composition obtained by GC/MS analysis and the calculation method for the saturated vapor pressure. The flash points predicted by the proposed method were almost in agreement with the measured values.
