We report viscosities of liquid hexadecane measured at temperatures between (323 and 673) K and at pressures up to 4.0 MPa. This study significantly extends the temperature range over which viscosity data for hexadecane are available. The experiments were carried out using a dual-capillary viscometer that measures the ratio of the viscosity at the temperature in question to that at a reference temperature, 298.15 K in this work, at which the viscosity is well known. Absolute viscosities were then obtained with an estimated expanded relative uncertainty of about 3 % at 95 % confidence. An empirical function was developed to correlate the viscosity ratio with the density ratio and this fitted the experimental data within about 1 %. The results were found to agree well with the existing literature data.

The development of a novel technique based on a cylindrical microwave resonator for high pressure phase equilibrium determination is described. Electric permittivity or dielectric constant is a physical property that depends on temperature and pressure ε(p,T). Based on this property, a measuring technique consisting of a cylindrical resonant cavity that works in the microwave spectrum has been developed. Equilibrium data of fluid mixtures are measured at high pressure using a synthetic method, where phase transition is determined under isothermal conditions due to the change of the dielectric constant. This technique may be a more accurate alternative to conventional visual synthetic methods.The technique was validated measuring pure CO2, and phase behaviour was then determined for two binary mixtures [CO2 (0.6) + CH4 (0.4)] and [CO2 (0.4) + CH4 (0.6)], results for which are presented. These systems are interesting for the study of biogas-like mixtures. In addition, data were compared with the equation of state used for natural gas GERG-2008, and also, they were modelled using Peng-Robinson equation of state and Wong-Sandler mixing rules, which are widely employed in chemical industries and which give good results.

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