Development of a System for Crude Oil Classification

Crude oil is the most sought petroleum product and can be found in different places of the world. It is composed of hydrocarbon, organic compounds and small amounts of metal, this mixture can be refined to produce thousands of products that are generally called petrochemicals including gasoline, diesel oil and plastics. Crude oil can be classified according to the physical and chemical properties of the oil, such as API Gravity of the oil, viscosity, colour and specific gravity. It can also be classified as either "sweet" or "sour" crude oil based on its sulphur content. However, the API gravity classification technique is perhaps the most important because it gives good indication of the commercial value or the price of the given oil. In terms of API gravity, the crude oil is classified as light, medium, heavy and extra heavy crude oils. The classification is done in the laboratory and it’s considered as a time-consuming process.
The scope of this project is to design a system that can minimize the time to classify the crude oil into two types by measuring the optical properties of the oil, applications for this system are mostly used in oil and gas field.