Department of Petrochemical

College of Technical Engineering

Duhok Polytechnic University

Practical Petroleum Properties lab.

1
Year Level
st

Name of student: Muhammad Akram

Muhammad
Group: A
Name of experiment: Determination of Specific Gravity,
and API Gravity for petroleum products

No. of experiment: 2
Date: 18/4/2016

Objective:
Determination of Specific Gravity, and API Gravity for
petroleum products

Introduction:
Determining the density, specific gravity and API gravity of
the fluid is very important to classify the fuel. This
experiment will shows us how to determine API and S.G via
two method. Density is mass per unit volume or Density is a
characteristic property of a substance. The density of a
substance is the relationship between the mass of the
substance and how much space it takes up (volume). Specific
gravity the ratio of the density of any substance to the
density of some other substance taken as standard, water
being the standard for liquids and solids, and hydrogen. API
gravity is used to quantify the quality of petroleum products
and it has ranges that measures the quality. And it depends
on specific gravity , the higher S.G the lower API gravity.
Apparatus and material:

 Hydrometer:
Pykonmeter 50 ml:
Graduated cylinder:
Scientific balance:

Procedure:
Hydrometer method:
At first we take a suitable graduated cylinder 500 ml and it
should be clean. The cylinder should be big enough because
when we put the hydrometer it should (move) floats easily in the
cylinder. So, we fill the cylinder with the sample (in our
experiment we just used kerosene for this method). After filling
the cylinder with the kerosene we allowed sufficient time for the
hydro meter to come to rest. And when the hydrometer is flowed
freely we took the scale reading. And at the end we brought out
the hydrometer and cleaned it.

Pycnometer method:

At first we took the emptied pyconmeter and weigh it (

M0

).

Then we filled the pyconmeter with the sample that we wanted

and weigh it again ( M 1 ). (To yield the weight of the sample we
subtract

M1

from

M0

.) The volume of the pyconmeter that we

used for kerosene and also gasoline was 5.340 ml and for
kerosene was 5.340ml. After those steps we measure the density
of fluid and API gravity and Specific Gravity according to what we
did in the lab.

API gravity = 141.5/S.G(at 15.6 C) 131.5

Note:
API gravity > 40 paraffinic (or light) based crude oil
API gravity = 33-40 mixed (or intermediate) based crude oil
API gravity < 33 naphthenic ( asphaltic or heavy)based crude oil

Calculations:
Hydrometer method
The specific gravity of kerosene is 0.790
API gravity =

141.5
0.790

- 131.5

API gravity = 179.1 131.5 =

47.61
Hydrometer method
The specific gravity of gasoline is 0.820
API gravity =

141.5
0.820

131.5

41.06
Pycnometer method

API gravity = 172.5 131.5 =

Kerosene
M0

of empty pycnometer = 14.70 g

M1

of filled pycnometer = 18.85 g

Volume of pycnometer = 5.340 ml
M= M 1 - M 0 = M= 18.85- 14.70= 4.15 g
D=

M 1M
volume of pycnometer
0

DENSITY
density of water

S.G =

0.777
0.999

141.5
0.777

API gravity =

4.15
5.340

= 0.777

= 0.777

- 131.5 = 181.6 - 131.5= 50.6

Gasoline
M0

of empty pycnometer = 14.70 g

M1

of filled pycnometer = 19.00 g

Volume of pycnometer = 5.340 ml
M=
D=

M1

M0

M= 19.00- 14.70= 4.3g

M 1M
volume of pycnometer
0

4.3
5.340

= 0.805

S.G =
S.G =

DENSITY
density of water

0.805
0.999

= 0.805

API gravity =
=

141.5
0.805

- 131.5

175.34131.5=4 4.27

We can classify them according to the ranges of API, that have

been wrote after procedure

Discussion:
In the lab we we measured the API and S.G of kerosene and
gasoline . we measured the API of kerosene and gasoline by
hydrometer and pycnometer, on hydrometer method the API value
of gasoline sample was 41.06 but in pycnometer method API was
44.27. The pycnometer method is more accurate because
hydrometer is affected by many things that makes reading not
accurate
1- Explain which method is much accurate?
Method two (pycnometer is more accurate than the hydrometer
and the reasons belongs to those factors that affect the
hydrometer like temperature, carbon dioxide, and presence of
alcohol..

2-

What are factor effecting on the hydrometer?

The factors that effects the hydrometer are:
temperature that causes the change in density
carbon dioxide

presence of alcohol
3-What are the advantages of API value?
The more API gravity value of crude oil is more expensive and
more effectual because its contain more gasoline and it is the
most wanted product at the whole world. The other advantage
of API gravity value that we can determine the sulphur contain
in crude oil , the higher value if API gravity means the less
contain of sulfur , the high levels of sulfur contains can be toxic
and dangerous and can cause breathing hazards .