Fractionation of Crude Oil using Solubility Parameter of Supercritical Carbon Dioxide.

Supercritical fluids (SCF) became one ofthe significant solvents both for industrial and commercial processes. The reason for that is SCF are neither a liquid nor a gas. SCF have a lower viscosity and higher diffiisivity if compared to other liquid solvents which allow SCF to make more effective and faster extraction of solutes. Amongst of all supercritical fluids the supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-C02) is one of the most important one. The main objective ofthis paper is to show fractionation ofthe crude oil into its components not as a traditional distillation method but using supercritical carbon dioxide. Difference of supercritical carbon dioxide fractionation of crude oil is that it uses solubility parameter to fractionate and not the boiling point temperature as it commonly done for the distillation process. By calculating Hildebrand's and Hansen's solubility parameters the best possible extraction conditions will be established.