Dewaxing of oil

C4H8O, CH3COCH2CH3. Colourless liquid with a pleasant odour, b.p. 80°C. It occurs with propanone in the products of the destructive distillation of wood. Manufactured by the liquid or vapour phase dehydrogenation of 2-butanol over a catalyst. Used as a solvent, particularly for vinyl and acrylic resins, and for nitrocellulose and cellulose acetate, also for the dewaxing of lubricating oils. U.S. production 1978 300 000 tonnes. 

Urea has the remarkable property of forming crystalline complexes or adducts with straight-chain organic compounds. These crystalline complexes consist of a hoUow channel, formed by the crystallized urea molecules, in which the hydrocarbon is completely occluded. Such compounds are known as clathrates. The type of hydrocarbon occluded, on the basis of its chain length, is determined by the temperature at which the clathrate is formed. This property of urea clathrates is widely used in the petroleum-refining industry for the production of jet aviation fuels (see Aviation and other gas-TURBINE fuels) and for dewaxing of lubricant oils (see also Petroleum, refinery processes). The clathrates are broken down by simply dissolving urea in water or in alcohol. 

MEK is also used iu solvent-based adhesives, iu printing ink formulations, as a solvent iu magnetic tape manufacture, and is the most common solvent used iu dewaxing lubricating oils. Of all these appHcations only an increasing consumption of magnetic tapes is likely to grow ia methyl ethyl ketone use. 

In shape-selective catalysis, the pore size of the zeoHte is important. For example, the ZSM-5 framework contains 10-membered rings with 0.6-nm pore size. This material is used in xylene isomerization, ethylbenzene synthesis, dewaxing of lubricatius oils and light fuel oil, ie, diesel and jet fuel, and the conversion of methanol to Hquid hydrocarbon fuels (21). 

Methyl ethyl ketone may also he produced hy the catalyzed dehydrogenation of sec-hutanol over zinc oxide or brass at about 500°C. The yield from this process is approximately 95%. MEK is used mainly as a solvent in vinyl and acrylic coatings, in nitrocellulose lacquers, and in adhesives. It is a selective solvent in dewaxing lubricating oils where it dissolves the oil and leaves out the wax. MEK is also used to synthesize various compounds such as methyl ethyl ketone peroxide, a polymerization catalyst used to form acrylic and polyester polymers and methyl pentynol by reacting with acetylene ... 

See also Josephson entries Low temperature superconductors (LTS) Lube basestocks, dewaxing of, 16 844 Lube oil additives, maleic anhydride derivatives as, 15 512. See also Lubricant (lube) additives Lube oil sulfonates... 

Figure 14.5. Representation of solvent extraction behavior in terms of certain properties rather than direct compositions [Dunstan et aL, Sci. Pet., 1825-1855 (1938)]. (a) Behavior of a naphthenic distillate of VGC = 0.874 with nitrobenzene at 10°C. The viscosity-gravity constant is low for paraffins and high for naphthenes, (b) Behavior of a kerosene with 95% ethanol at 17°C. The aniline point is low for aromatics and naphthenes and high for paraffins, (c) Behavior of a dewaxed crude oil with liquid propane at 70°F, with composition expressed in terms of specific gravity.

Bright Stock—High-viscosity, fully refined and dewaxed lubricating oils produced by the treatment of residual stocks and used to compound motor oils. 

Morales, J. A., "Dewaxing of Gas Oil by Adsorption on Activated Carbon", M.S. Thesis, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 1977. 

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