How to Determine the Carbon Residue Content in oil

How to Determine the Carbon Residue Content in oil

The residual carbon value of an oil product refers to the mass percentage of the oil product's carbon residue formed after the evaporation and thermal cracking process under a specific high temperature condition. The value of residual carbon is related to the chemical composition and ash content of the oil. In addition to ash, substances such as gums, asphaltenes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in oil are the main sources of carbon residue. Therefore, under normal circumstances, the residual carbon value can be used to characterize the relative coking tendency of oil products (except for oil products containing ash additives), which is used to guide the selection of raw materials and the production process of oil products.

There are 4 methods for determination of carbon residue currently in use: Conradson method (ASTM D189): micro method (ASTM D4530), electric furnace method (SH/T170) and Lang method (SH/T160). 

1. The Conradson method is a standard method commonly used in countries all over the world; 

2. the micro method is a simple and efficient method for determining carbon residue that has been widely used at home and abroad in recent years; 

3. the electric furnace method originated from the former Soviet Union and is used in few countries; 

Because of the only approximate relationship between the carbon residue data and the Conradson carbon residue, the method is seldom used. In view of the fact that there are certain differences in the working principles, experimental devices, operating conditions and other factors of different carbon residue determination methods, the correlation between the determination results obtained by different methods has always been an issue of concern to oil analysts.

GD-268 Conradson method Carbon residue Content Tester(ASTM D189)

GD-30011 Electrical Furnace Method Carbon Residue Content Tester

GD-17144 Micro-method Carbon Residue Content Tester(ASTM D4530)