When heating hydrocarbons (e.g. paraffin oil) they begin to smell; his could be avoided by adding 10 ppm tocopherols before heating. Do anybody know something about the chemical reason of the smell? It is not a reaction with oxygen since it happens also in vacuum.So far I cannot find out what kind of substance(s) causes the smell.
You might be able to collect volatile components in the headspace and analyze by GC-MS (or even MS-MS, for more information) A simple test could be the comparison of fresh oil and pre-heated oil. A more informative test might be to start with fresh oil heat it at a given temperature and periodically sample the headspace above the oil and analyze by GC.
If there is a way to split the stream after the column, you would also be able to smell the compounds as they come off (*might not be safe*) so you would know which peak(s) is (are) responsible for the odor.
Dear Andreas Herrmann,
The smell may come from turpentine (impurity found in the mineral oil).
Please see the following link:
https://books.google.ps/books?id=Zh4AAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA380&lpg=PA380&dq=What+is+the+smell+of+hot+mineral+oil&source=bl&ots=EXLEb-xSsb&sig=DnYNzAn1S-_YO8wCa26gv8htlgo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj73Pnn08rLAhUFtBoKHakDAQsQ6AEIOjAF#v=onepage&q=What%20is%20the%20smell%20of%20hot%20mineral%20oil&f=false
Hoping this will be helpful,
Rafik
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