Pour Point vs Pumpability 3

[rib]

Does anybody have a good source of information to examine the relationship between the two properties. I have to supply a pipeline with cargo at -15 DEg C Pour Point, which I feel may be overly stringent.

 

[25362]

Although you don't specifically indicate what kind of fuel is being considered, one can say that it has long been known that pour points (PP) as measured by ASTM D97/IP 15 for heavy fuels in the categories of Grades 5 (light and heavy) and Grade 6 (ASTM D 396) bear no direct correlation with pumpability.

The failure of fuels to flow at the PP is normally attributed to the separation of wax, but also can be due to viscosity effects, especially on the fuels mentioned above.

It has also been found that the thermal history of these heavy fuels affect their PP. In fact, any loosely knit wax structure buit up on cooling of the oils can be normally broken by the application of little pressure.

Thus, the usefulness of the PP tests on residual fuels in relation to pumpability is open to question, and the tendency to regard PP as the limiting temperature at which a fuel will flow can be misleading unless a correlation is made with low-temperature viscosity.

Various time consuming methods have been proposed for routine control to assess low temperature pumpability or fluidity.
I believe the one in use nowadays is ASTM D3245-03 on "pumpability of industrial fuels".

Good luck.