Limits of superheat and explosive boiling of light hydrocarbons, halocarbons, and hydrocarbon mixtures

Abstract

Abstract The limits of superheat of thirteen light hydrocarbons and four light halocarbons were experimentally measured at one atmosphere using a superheating column. While there was some variation in the number of degrees to which a compound could be superheated before boiling explosively, in all cases the reduced limits T L / T c were close to 0.88. The measured superheat limits of three binary hydrocarbon systems and several ternary mixtures were close to mole fraction averages of the limits of the pure components. The results of both pure components and mixtures paralleled predictions of Beegle (1973), based on thermodynamic stability theory. Limits of pure components agreed closely with limits predicted from homogeneous nucleation theory.