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John Chisholm
Texas A&M University — Kingsville
Chemical & Natural Gas Engineering
Kingsville, TX 78363
THE IDEAL AND REAL GAS LAWS Pressure is the force per unit area. The force on the wall
of a container containing gas is the number of impacts of
The ideal gas law is given as gas molecules on the wall. So, anything that increases
PV = nRT the number of impacts or the velocity of the impacts will
increase the force, and, hence, the pressure.
and the real gas law as
PV = znRT The Kinetic Theory of Gases states that the kinetic energy
where P = pressure, psia (KE) of a molecule is directly proportional to its
V = volume, cubic feet temperature.
z = compressibility factor, dimensionless 1
KE(T) = mv 2 = cT
n = number of moles of gas, lb mol 2
T = temperature °R
R = 10.732 psia ft3/(lb mol °R) for this system of
Where m is the mass of the molecule, v is the molecule’s
units. (The value of R will change depending velocity, and c is a constant.
on the system of units.)
The Ideal Gas Law can be derived using the Kinetic
The difference between the ideal and the real gas law is Theory. And the derivation explains a great deal about
the compressibility factor, z. The ideal gas law assumes
what pressure is and how gases react.
that the molecules of gas have no volume and there are
no attractive or repulsive forces acting between the Consider a cubic container with sides of length L,
molecules. At very low pressures z = ~ 1.0 and gases
behave as if they are ideal gases. At higher pressures
the attractive and repulsive forces (often called the
dynamic pressure) are significant and the behavior of
gases deviates from the ideal. The compressibility factor
is often called the gas deviation factor or, simply, the
z-factor.
L
Early experiments were conducted at low pressures and
the gases tested acted as ideal gases. Boyle’s Law states
that at a constant temperature the product of the pressure L
and the volume is a constant, so any two conditions, 1 L
and 2, of a gas were related by
P1V1 - P2V2 In a container of fixed volume, the velocity controls how
long it will take a molecule to travel from one side of the
Charles’ Law states the ratio of volume to temperature container to the other and back again.
is constant at constant pressure,
V1 V Length of a round trip = 2L
= 2
T1 T2 The number of impacts on a given wall is then:
These can be combined into one of the most common Number of impacts per unit time = v
expressions of the ideal gas law. 2L
P1V1 P2V2 where v is the average velocity of the molecule. Each
=
T1 T2 molecule of gas hits the wall at v and rebounds at –v. The
The change in momentum of a molecule per unit time is Both Charles’ and Boyle’s Laws have been derived from
given by: the Kinetic Theory. Some other very useful laws can be
2m’v * v = m’ v
2
derived from the Kinetic Theory. (For the record, the Laws
2L L were determined experimentally before the Kinetic Theory
n’ was developed.) Avogadro’s Law states that, at the same
Only a third of the molecules, 3 in the box are hitting temperature and pressure, equal volumes of an ideal gas
each wall.
contains the same number of molecules. Also the volume
containing one molecular weight of a given gas will be
The force acting on a wall is the number of molecules equivalent to the volume containing one molecular weight
times the change in momentum per unit time.
of another gas at the same temperature and pressure.
’ ’ 2 There are 2.73 x 1026 molecules per pound mole of an
F = n mv ideal gas.
3 L
And pressure is the force per unit area.
When the Kinetic Theory is extended to mixtures of gases,
Dalton’s Law of Partial Pressures can be found. Dalton’s
P = n’ m’ v 12 = n’ m3’ v
2 2
P = n’ m’ v or PV = n’ m’ v
2 2
3V 3 Ptotal = PA + PB + PC + ...
The beginning assumption was that the kinetic energy and that the partial pressures are proportional to the mole
was a function of temperature alone. fractions of each component. The partial pressures
become especially important if liquid water is in contact
Then, with the gas. The partial pressures can be used to
m’ v 2 = 2cT and PV = n’ 2cT determine what fraction of each gas is in solution in the
3 liquid. If significant quantities of CO2 or H2S are present,
where c is a constant. they will produce corrosive acids in solution with water.
Now
A 3 ( )
PV = n’ 2 cA T
z =
VACTUAL
VIDEAL
n’ = n and we set 2 cA = R
As the pressure increases from near atmospheric, the
A 3 molecules are pushed closer together. Both gravitational
Then, and electrical attractions cause the molecules to pull
PV = nRT towards one another with the result that the volume
occupied by the gas is less than that predicated by the
which is the ideal gas law. gas law. The z-factor becomes less than one.
Tc Pc
z = 0.925
For mixtures, the pseudo-critical properties can be used Vsc = Vline Pline Tsc zsc
in these calculations. When plotted for each and every Psc Tline zline
hydrocarbon gas the z-factor lines now tracked together.
This discovery is commonly called the Law of
Corresponding States. This allowed a generalized 500psia 520°R 1.0
Vsc = 4,000 macf
compressibility factor chart to be developed. 14.7psia 582°R 0.925
The density and specific gravity of a gas can be Consider the gas of Example 1. The pipeline runs 39 miles
calculated using of 8 inch pipe with a total enclosed volume of 70,000
ρ cubic feet. If we start the day with an average pressure of
ρg = ρ MWg and SGg = g = MWg 500 psia and 122EF and end it at 600 psia and 122EF,
zRT ρair MWair how much additional gas is in the pipeline?
where MWg is the molecular weight of the gas and ρg is Initial gas in the pipeline:
the density of the gas. Values of the critical properties
Ppipe Tsc zsc
Vsc = Vpipe
Psc Tpipe zpipe
Table 1. Pseudo-Property Calculation for Example 1.
Component Mole Fraction Tc yjTcj Pc yjPcj
yj °Rankine °Rankine psia psia
C1 0.85 343.3 291.8 666.4 566.4
C2 0.09 549.9 49.5 706.5 63.6
C3 0.04 666.1 26.6 616 24.6
C4+ 0.02 830.0 16.6 482 9.6
384.5 664.2
REFERENCES
John Chisholm