Wax content measurements in partially frozen paraffinic systems

Waxy solid content and wax composition were measured as a function of temperature below the onset crystallization temperatures in several synthetic systems made up of a solvent (decane) and a paraffinic heavy fraction. The heavy fraction of the first system studied was made up of a regular series of heavy alkanes ranging from C(18) to C(36). Whereas in other systems, some intermediate paraffins were removed from the series in order to have various <<bimodal>> distributions. Experimental data were used to test the capacity of a local composition model to predict solid phase behaviors of these bimodal paraffinic distributions. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.