The mathematical model proposed by Kozanoglu et al. [B. Kozanoglu, F. Ferrero, M. Munoz, J. Amaldos, J. Casal, Velocity of the convective currents in boilover, Chem. Eng. Sci. 61 (8) (2006) 2550-2556] for simulating heat transfer in hydrocarbon mixtures in the process that leads to boilover requires the initial value of the convective current's velocity through the fuel layer as an adjustable parameter. Here, a correlation for predicting this parameter based on the properties of the fuel (average ebullition temperature) and the initial thickness of the fuel layer is proposed. (D) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.