You’re probably one of the people that are always wondering whether crude oil can catch fire, and that’s precisely what we’ll find out in this article. But is crude oil flammable? YES! Generally, crude oil is flammable, but it all depends on its flashpoint at that moment.
The increasing importance of crude oil all over the world, and its dramatic increase over the years, has seen the economies of so many nations of the world grow rapidly, especially its chief producers like the majority of the Asian continent, some part of the American continent, and even Africa.
So many activities that concern crude oil has been going on, including its transportation, which has raised questions about whether it is a fire hazard or combustible.
What is Crude Oil?
Crude oil is a complex mixture of paraffinic, cycloparaffinic, and aromatic hydrocarbons covering carbon numbers ranging from C1 to more than C60.
In other words, it is composed of primarily liquid hydrocarbons with dissolved gases and trace amounts of suspended water, inorganic compounds.
An average crude oil comprises approximately 84% of Carbon, 14% of Hydrogen, 1%-3% of Sulfur, 1% of Nitrogen, 1% of Oxygen, 0.1% of Minerals & Salts.
These compounds form many complex molecular structures, some of which cannot be readily identified.
However, despite the variations, nearly every crude oil ranges from 82%-87% carbon by weight and 12%-15% hydrogen by weight.
Crude oil, liquid petroleum can be found accumulated in various porous rock formations in Earth’s crust and is extracted for burning as fuel or for processing into chemical products. It can be amber or black.
Crude oil is highly flammable and can result in eye, skin, gastrointestinal, and respiratory irritation. Once you inhale, it will make you feel dizzy, nauseous, or headache and may have serious health implications if you swallow it.
Crude oil may contain variable amounts of benzene (a popular building block in the petrochemical industry) and n-hexane.
Therefore, according to sources, continuous exposure to these materials can lead to systemic toxicity like leukemia and peripheral neurotoxicity. Now, going by the brief details on crude oil, can it be considered flammable?
Is Crude Oil Flammable or Combustible?
Most people confuse flammability with combustion. Although both have to do with burning, they are slightly dissimilar.
For a clearer understanding, flammability is the ability of liquids to catch fire and burn easily at normal working temperatures. In contrast, combustion requires higher than normal temperatures to ignite or catch fire.
Therefore, crude oils are flammable but to varying degrees or conditions. In other words, it can be flammable but may not combustible. Its combustion requires more than the normal temperatures.
Also, lighter oils may easily catch fire in some situations than heavier crude oils, depending on the range of light hydrocarbons they contain.
There has been a safety alert issued by the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), a kind of notification to emergency responders, shippers, carriers, and the public that:
“The present resulting fires shows that the kind of crude oil moved from the Bakken region of North Dakota is probably more flammable than traditional heavy crude oil.”
The notification also alerted emergency responders that light sweet crude oil, like the one coming from the Bakken region, carries a higher fire risk if emitted from the tank in a car accident.
All the above postulations point towards the high flammability risk of crude oil depending on its variations.
For instance, there’s this increasing belief that light volatile crude oil such as Bakken crude can result in disastrous incidents; hence, it can be too hazardous to transport by railways.
However, similar hazardous and flammable liquids from other means are often transported by rail, tanker truck, barge, and pipeline, but not without accident risk.
What Flashpoint Is Required of Crude Oil to be Considered Flammable?
First, flashpoint refers to the lowest temperature when a solvent can form an ignitable mixture in the air close to the liquid surface.
Note that it’s easier to ignite the liquid solvent if its flashpoint is lower. Meanwhile, the measurement of flashpoint doesn’t need the production of a stable flame, but just the ignition of vapor and fuel.
The original measurement which defines ignition is usually a temperature rise that is produced by the combustion.
Going by the above descriptions, what then is the flashpoint of crude oil, and at what flashpoint does it require to be considered flammable?
Well, for any liquid, including crude oil, to be considered flammable, they must have a flashpoint below 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius).
They must be around or above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius) to be considered combustible.
The question remains, is crude oil higher or lower than the average flashpoint temperature? Well, according to the measurement of Cenovus Energy in their Material Safety Data Sheet, crude oil has a flashpoint at around 95 degrees Fahrenheit, which makes it flammable but not entirely combustible.