Retrograde condensation
Encyclopedia
Retrograde condensation occurs when gas
Gas
Gas is one of the three classical states of matter . Near absolute zero, a substance exists as a solid. As heat is added to this substance it melts into a liquid at its melting point , boils into a gas at its boiling point, and if heated high enough would enter a plasma state in which the electrons...

 in a tube is compressed beyond the point of condensation with the effect that the liquid evaporates again. This is the opposite of condensation
Condensation
Condensation is the change of the physical state of matter from gaseous phase into liquid phase, and is the reverse of vaporization. When the transition happens from the gaseous phase into the solid phase directly, the change is called deposition....

 the so called retrograde condensation.

Description

If the volume of two gases which are kept at constant temperature
Temperature
Temperature is a physical property of matter that quantitatively expresses the common notions of hot and cold. Objects of low temperature are cold, while various degrees of higher temperatures are referred to as warm or hot...

 and pressure
Pressure
Pressure is the force per unit area applied in a direction perpendicular to the surface of an object. Gauge pressure is the pressure relative to the local atmospheric or ambient pressure.- Definition :...

 below critical conditions is gradually reduced, condensation will start. When a certain volume is reached, the amount of condensation will gradually increase upon further reduction in volume until the gases are liquefied. If the composition of the gases lies between their true and pseudo critical point
Critical point (thermodynamics)
In physical chemistry, thermodynamics, chemistry and condensed matter physics, a critical point, also called a critical state, specifies the conditions at which a phase boundary ceases to exist...

s the condensation formed will disappear on continued reduction of volume. The disappearance of condensation is called retrograde condensation.

Because natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...

 is not a pure product, when non-associated gas is extracted from a field under supercritical (pressure/temperature) conditions (when the pressure in the reservoir decreases below dewpoint), it may partially condense upon isothermic
Isothermal process
An isothermal process is a change of a system, in which the temperature remains constant: ΔT = 0. This typically occurs when a system is in contact with an outside thermal reservoir , and the change occurs slowly enough to allow the system to continually adjust to the temperature of the reservoir...

 depressurizing instead of expanding or vaporizing, an effect called retrograde condensation.

Discovery

Johannes Petrus Kuenen
Johannes Petrus Kuenen
Johannes Petrus Kuenen was a Dutch physicist.-Biography:Kuenen was the son of the professor of theology Abraham Kuenen and his wife Wiepkje Muurling. His son Philip Henry Kuenen was professor of geology. From 1884 to 1889 he studied at the University of Leiden, where he graduated in 1892...

 discovered retrograde condensation and published his findings in April 1892 with the title "Metingen betreffende het oppervlak van Van der Waals voor mengsels van koolzuur en chloormethyl"
(Measurements on the surface of Van der Waals for mixtures of carbonic acid
Carbonic acid
Carbonic acid is the inorganic compound with the formula H2CO3 . It is also a name sometimes given to solutions of carbon dioxide in water, because such solutions contain small amounts of H2CO3. Carbonic acid forms two kinds of salts, the carbonates and the bicarbonates...

 and methyl chloride
Chloride
The chloride ion is formed when the element chlorine, a halogen, picks up one electron to form an anion Cl−. The salts of hydrochloric acid HCl contain chloride ions and can also be called chlorides. The chloride ion, and its salts such as sodium chloride, are very soluble in water...

).
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