title: “Characterization Package” description: “Petroleum TBP, plus-fraction, assay, lumping, asphaltene, and pseudo-component characterization in NeqSim.” —

Characterization Package

The neqsim.thermo.characterization package converts petroleum assay, TBP, and plus-fraction information into pseudo-components suitable for NeqSim equations of state and process calculations.

Main workflows

Workflow	Primary API	Use
Pre-binned TBP fractions	`SystemInterface.addTBPfraction(...)`	Add a petroleum cut from moles, molar mass, and specific gravity
Plus fraction	`SystemInterface.addPlusFraction(...)` + `Characterise`	Represent and split a C7+/C20+ heavy end
Refinery assay	`OilAssayCharacterisation`	Convert mass- or volume-basis refinery cuts/TBP boundaries to pseudo-components
TBP property model selection	`Characterise.setTBPModel(...)`	Select Pedersen, Lee-Kesler, Riazi-Daubert, Twu, Cavett, Standing, and related models
Lumping	`Characterise.configureLumping()`	Reduce a detailed heavy-end slate while preserving configured grouping rules
Common-slate characterization	`PseudoComponentCombiner`	Align multiple characterized fluids to a shared pseudo-component definition
Wax/asphaltene characterization	wax/asphaltene classes	Specialized heavy-phase workflows

Critical unit contract

addTBPfraction and addPlusFraction use kg/mol for molar mass. Petroleum examples therefore use values such as 0.096 kg/mol for a roughly C7 cut, not 96.0.

The density argument is the petroleum specific gravity/relative-density numeric value. Current system APIs also accept density values above 1.5 as kg/m3 and normalize them internally, but unit-explicit refinery-assay helpers are preferred when importing assay tables.

import neqsim.thermo.system.SystemInterface;
import neqsim.thermo.system.SystemSrkEos;

SystemInterface fluid = new SystemSrkEos(373.15, 100.0);
fluid.addComponent("methane", 0.70);
fluid.addComponent("ethane", 0.10);
fluid.addComponent("propane", 0.08);
fluid.addComponent("n-butane", 0.05);

// name, moles, molar mass [kg/mol], specific gravity [-]
fluid.addTBPfraction("C7", 0.04, 0.096, 0.727);
fluid.addPlusFraction("C20+", 0.03, 0.400, 0.90);

Refinery assay characterization

For crude/petroleum assays, use OilAssayCharacterisation rather than manually converting every volume cut to moles. The assay API provides:

one explicit composition basis per assay: mass or liquid volume;
volume-to-mass conversion using cut density;
kg/mol and g/mol explicit molar-mass helpers;
specific-gravity, kg/m3, and API-gravity density inputs;
exact API-gravity/SG60/60 round-tripping and explicit bulk density at 60 degF;
forward and inverse UOP/Watson characterization between representative boiling point and specific gravity;
mass-basis mapping of known assay light ends to authoritative NeqSim standard components;
number-average molar mass from mass-basis PIANO family/carbon-number data;
per-cut total-sulfur and total-nitrogen inputs with mass-basis whole-assay reconstruction;
pre-binned cumulative TBP cut-boundary ingestion;
preserved finite and one-sided lower/upper boiling boundaries;
closure, duplicate-name, monotonicity, and repeated-application guards.

See Refinery Assay and TBP Cut Characterization for the complete contract and the refinery campaign gap matrix. Independent public-data bookkeeping evidence is tracked in DOE Big Hill Sweet refinery assay validation, whole-assay density/API evidence in DOE/OEDI COA bulk density qualification, per-cut characterization evidence in DOE Big Hill Watson-factor qualification, terminal representative-temperature evidence in DOE Big Hill terminal-Watson qualification, composition-resolved light-end evidence in DOE Big Hill light-end qualification, PIANO aggregate molar-mass evidence in DOE Big Hill C5-175 degF qualification, assay-quality evidence in DOE Big Hill sulfur qualification and DOE Big Hill nitrogen qualification, terminal-boundary evidence in DOE Big Hill terminal-cut qualification, and the process-integration gate in DOE Big Hill atmospheric fractionation qualification.

The qualified inputs are assembled into one reusable reference composition by DOE Big Hill Sweet complete modeled assay slate.

A second public operating case is retained by Al-Diwiniya atmospheric operating reference. Its 2-60 liquid-vol% partial TBP curve, plant configuration, product rates, and draw temperatures remain explicitly separate from the complete DOE modeled slate. The source fixed its HYSYS product rates, so those values are operating specifications rather than independent yield-validation evidence.

Sarir atmospheric validation reference adds a CC BY 4.0, complete-range TBP case with 34-tray operating data, numeric product ASTM D86 endpoints, and plant product rates that remain independent validation targets.

TBP fraction models

TBP models estimate the properties needed to represent petroleum pseudo-components in an EOS. Available implementations include Pedersen SRK/PR variants, Lee-Kesler, Riazi-Daubert, Twu, Cavett, and Standing.

SystemInterface fluid = new SystemSrkEos(350.0, 50.0);
fluid.getCharacterization().setTBPModel("PedersenSRK");
fluid.addTBPfraction("C7", 0.05, 0.096, 0.727);
fluid.addTBPfraction("C10", 0.04, 0.134, 0.782);
fluid.addTBPfraction("C12+", 0.15, 0.250, 0.85);

For equations, model selection boundaries, and references, see:

Lumping configuration

After plus-fraction splitting, lumping can reduce the number of pseudo-components for faster process calculations.

// Preserve lighter TBP fractions and lump the heavier range.
fluid.getCharacterization().configureLumping()
    .model("PVTlumpingModel")
    .plusFractionGroups(5)
    .build();

// Target a total number of pseudo-components.
fluid.getCharacterization().configureLumping()
    .model("standard")
    .totalPseudoComponents(6)
    .build();

// Match user-defined grouping boundaries.
fluid.getCharacterization().configureLumping()
    .customBoundaries(6, 7, 10, 15, 20)
    .build();

// Keep the detailed SCN representation.
fluid.getCharacterization().configureLumping()
    .noLumping()
    .build();

Model	Behaviour	Typical use
`PVTlumpingModel`	Preserves configured lighter TBP fractions and lumps the plus fraction	PVT/process workflows that retain light-cut detail
`standard`	Lumps the characterized heavy range to a requested total	Smaller simulation slates
custom boundaries	Uses explicit carbon-number/group boundaries	Matching an external/reference characterization
no lumping	Retains the generated detailed representation	Detailed characterization studies

Common pseudo-component slates

When several reservoir or process fluids need to be mixed consistently, use PseudoComponentCombiner rather than assuming independently generated pseudo-components have identical meaning.

See Fluid Characterization Combining for common-slate and reference-slate workflows.

Asphaltene and wax workflows

NeqSim also contains specialized heavy-phase characterization used by wax and asphaltene calculations. These are separate from the refinery-assay bookkeeping API because they introduce additional phase-model assumptions and validation requirements.

See:

Validation guidance

Characterization validation should distinguish three layers:

Bookkeeping: units, cut yields, composition/mass closure, component identity, splitting/lumping conservation.
Property correlations: boiling point, molecular weight, density, critical properties, acentric factor, and applicability ranges.
Process behaviour: flash, phase envelope, distillation/fractionation, and product-yield agreement for representative fluids.

A bookkeeping regression does not by itself validate a petroleum-property correlation, and a property match does not by itself establish refinery column performance. The refinery campaign in issue #3305 uses these layers as separate quality gates.