Evaporation rates of liquid hydrocarbon spills on land and water

The mass and heat transfer processes occurring during the evaporation of liquid hydrocarbon spills on land and water are described and equations developed to enable the liquid temperature and evaporation rate to be predicted. Experiments on the evaporation of cumene, water and gasoline are described and the evaporation mass transfer coefficient correlated with the wind‐speed, liquid pool size and the vapour phase Schmidt Number. Good agreement is obtained between experimental and computed cumene temperature and evaporation rates. Comparison of the correlation with flat plate mass transfer correlations shows satisfactory agreement and suggests that turbulent transfer occurs, the rate being enhanced by the liquid surface roughness. The more complex problem of estimating evaporation rates of hydrocarbon mixtures is discussed briefly.