Characteristics of Waxes and Paraffins

During the production of mineral oils from vacuum distillates, one of the process steps, dewaxing , removes the high melting point materials in order to improve the oil s pour point. Dewaixing produces paraffins and waxes, the first coming from light distillates, and the second from medium or heavy distillates. 

Paraffins consist mainly of straight chain alkanes, with a very small proportion of isoalkanes and cycloalkanes. Their freezing point is generally between 30°C and 70°C, the average molecular weight being around 350. When present, aromatics appear only in trace quantities. 

Waxes are less well defined aliphatic mixtures of n-alkanes, isoalkanes and cycloalkanes in various proportions. Their average molecular weights are higher than those of the paraffins from 600 to 800. 

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