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The data presented in this article relates to the crystallisation of hexadecane (C16H34) and octadecane (C18H38), being the predominant alkanes present in hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), from solvents representative of fuel (dodecane, toluene and kerosene). Data was collected for eleven C16H34/C18H38 compositions for each solvent used. Raw crystallisation and dissolution data is provided over a range of solution concentrations and cooling rates used under a poly-thermal crystallisation methodology. Equilibrium saturation temperature data is also presented for each composition, concentration and solvent system, indicating the trend in solubility for each solution.

The solubility and crystallisability of a range of binary mixtures of n-hexadecane (C16H34) and n-octadecane (C18H38), as the predominant alkanes present in hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), from three representative fuel solutions (dodecane, toluene and kerosene) is presented. The dissolution (saturation) and crystallisation (supersaturation) points of the solutions are measured using poly-thermal methods utilising turbidometric detection over four concentrations from (192 g/l to 400 g/l). The data reveals the existence of more soluble, less stable crystal structures that form from the alkane mixtures, when compared to the stable triclinic crystal structures formed from the single solute component solutions. An increased carbon chain length results in lower solubility for all three solvents and the solvent type is not found to have any significant effect on the solid forms produced from the mixtures. van’t Hoff analysis reveals the solvent type to influence the solute solubility with the closest to ideal behaviour being dodecane followed by kerosene and toluene, respectively. This finding is further supported by the calculated dissolution enthalpies and activity coefficients, which are the lowest in dodecane followed by kerosene and toluene. Larger values of activity coefficients are observed for compositions with molar fraction (y) = 0.1, 0.5–0.7 C18H38 which reflect the complex multi-phase formation in the solutions when compared with the more simple binary melt crystallisation system.

A polythermal methodology to assess the mechanisms and the kinetics of solution crystallisation is described and used in connection with a recently proposed model for the dependence of the critical undercooling for crystallisation on the cooling rate (D. Kashchiev, A. Borissova, R. B. Hammond, K. J. Roberts, J. Cryst. Growth, 312 (2010) 698–704; J. Phys. Chem. B, 114 (2010) 5441–5446). This first principles model allows determination of crystallisation parameters that could otherwise only be obtained by combined application of both the isothermal and the polythermal methods. The methodology is validated through analysis of experimental data measured for methyl stearate crystallising from kerosene solutions with concentrations from 200 to 350 g l−1. The analysis reveals a progressive heterogeneous nucleation mechanism and crystallite interfacial tension values between 1.64 and 1.79 with no obvious dependence on the solution concentration, in good agreement with values derived by isothermal methods. Sensitivity analysis leads to the conclusion that a minimum of four different cooling rates spanning at least one order of magnitude together with at least five repeats for crystallisation temperature values at each cooling rate are appropriate. Extensive supplementary material provides a mathematical description of the above authors' model, insight into the relationship between this model and the empirical Nyvlt model, and further detail concerning the results of the sensitivity analysis carried out on the experimental methodology used.

A detailed analysis of the crystal morphology of triclinic n-docosane (C22H46) is presented together with a preliminary assessment of the supersaturation-dependence of the growth rates for the predicted ( h k l ) faces. A methodology to index the experimentally observed crystal faces, based on a combined BFDH and zone axis methodology is defined. Analysis using this methodology yields the morphological indexation of n-docosane to be (001), (112), (102), (010), and (1−33) or (130) based on the expected triclinic crystal structure. Crystals of n-docosane growing from supersaturated n-dodecane (C12H26) solutions, as studied using in-situ optical microscopy, at three different supersaturation (σ) levels 0.01, 0.02 and 0.05, reveal that the crystal morphology changes with increasing in supersaturation, evolving from a habit consistent with a triclinic crystal system to a habit that is perhaps more representative of an orthorhombic structure. Growth rates determined for the (112) and (102) faces as well as for those less dominant faces range between 0.51 and 9.85 µm/s, in good agreement with previously reported data for other organic molecules including n-alkanes.