OVERVIEW

Lubricants can be distinguished from other products obtained from petroleum crude by a high-viscosity and a high-boiling range, i.e., >400 C (673 K). Therefore, heavy feeds suitable for the production of lubricating oils include VGO and DAO because the substantial portion of these feeds boils above 400 C. The crudes from which VGO and DAO were obtained influence the overall processing scheme. For example, VGO and DAO derived from a naphthenic crude are more suitable for the production of lubricants than those derived from an aromatic crude. In this case, propane would be the solvent of choice used for the production of DAO. This would almost completely eliminate metals and asphaltenes from DAO. At the same time, this would ensure that oil and to a lesser extent also resin phases of the colloidal system are the main components of the feed for the production of lube base oil. Subsequently, the lube base oil is blended with various additives to attain performance characteristics of the lubricating oils.

Although of non-petroleum origin, the wax by-product of the FT synthesis has been identified as an important feed for the production of lubricating oils. Rather high content of n-paraffins makes this wax a suitable feed for investigating the catalysts required for an extreme case of dewaxing. Today, the advances in catalyst development resulted in the process which can readily hydroisomerize the wax by-product to produce the lube base oil possessing similar properties as that derived from petroleum feeds. Middle distillates and AGO are other...