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Updated: Dec 7, 2025

High-pressure Sapphire Cell for Phase Equilibria Measurements of CO2/Organic/Water Systems
Published on: January 24, 2014
High-pressure apparatus for monitoring solid-liquid phase transitions
Margaret C Jones1, Kristen B Campbell1, Mary Jane Coffey1
1Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Blvd., Richland, Washington 99352, USA.
Abstract:
This work presents a new technique for evaluating the solid-liquid phase transformations in complex diesel fuel blends and diesel surrogates under high-pressure conditions intended to simulate those occurring in vehicle fuel injectors. A high-pressure apparatus based on a visual identification of freezing and thawing has been designed and built to monitor phase behavior and determine the crystallization temperature of complex fuels to predict wax precipitation. The proposed methodology was validated using pure substances-n-hexadecane (C16H34), cyclohexane (C6H12), and a mixture of 0.5848 mol fraction n-hexadecane in cyclohexane. The crystallization temperatures of these compounds were measured from atmospheric pressure to 400 MPa for temperatures varying from 290 K to 363 K and compared to those reported in the literature. The standard error of the estimated temperatures for the experimental data obtained in this work, based on a given pressure, was compared to data from the literature. This methodology will be extended to investigate the properties of more complex fuel mixtures.
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