In the Institute of Petrochemical Processes of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan there has been developed the new technology for preparation of poly-alpha-olefin synthetic oils (PAO) which has a number of advantages as compared with the operative technology in the world. They are the following:
1. Preparation of PAO oil doesn't require the use of special and expensive a-olefin hydrocarbons as a feedstock.
It is known that for PAO synthetic oils preparation the a-olefin hydrocarbons C8; C10; C12 and C14 are used 1 ton of which costs 12000 rubles (by estimates of association "Nizhnekamskneftekhim" in the town of Nizhnekamsk) and the other a-olefin hydrocarbons C4; C6; C20-C26 and C28-C30, which are not used for PAO oil preparation, cost on the average 1050 rubles for 1 ton.
The developed technology allows to use for PAO oils preparation the a-olefin hydrocarbons of any fractional composition; the oils obtained have the same high qualities.
2. The high yield of PAO synthetic oil which amounts to 100-113% by mass on feedstock - a-olefin hydrocarbons.
3. Allows to obtain 4 types of PAO oils of different viscosity, instead of one oil by the existing technology.
4. The cleaning of the PAO synthetic oils obtained is not required.
5. Low energy expenses.
6. Along with PAO synthetic oils also the valuable dearomatized petroleum fractions are obtained which contain 0-1% by mass of aromatic hydrocarbons.
The process is waste less.
In the table there have been set the yields and qualities of PAO synthetic oils obtained by polymerization of mixture of a-olefin hydrocarbons C8-C14 boiling in the range of 140-2400C (the olefins were prepared by thermal decomposition of paraffin hydrocarbons); mixture of a-olefin hydrocarbon contained 8% of n-paraffin hydrocarbons, 11% of dienes, trienes and 81% of a-olefin hydrocarbons.
PAO synthetic oils have been prepared by successive use of the following processes: polymerization of a-olefin hydrocarbons, neutralization of polymerizate and atmospheric vacuum distillation of the neutralized polymerizate.
The polymerization conditions were the following: a-olefin hydrocarbons 100%, petroleum fraction 100% on a-olefin hydrocarbons; temperature 300C; feedstock contact time with catalyst 3 hours; catalyst amount 4% by mass on a-olefin hydrocarbons.
As is seen from Table data, in consequence of polymerization of a-olefin hydrocarbons fraction with 81% of olefins it is succeeded to obtain 4 fractions of PAO synthetic oils with viscosity 3.7, 8.5 mm2/s at 500C and 6.5; 22.5 mm2/s at 1000C with high quality. The total yield of oils amounts to 109% by mass on a-olefin hydrocarbons. Besides the oils, the dearomatized petroleum fraction has been obtained in the amount of 84% by mass on a-olefin hydrocarbons.
Due to the above and other advantages of the developed technology it is secceeded to reduce the production cost of the PAO synthetic oil by 7-10 times.
The developed technology for production of PAO synthetic oils hasn't yet been commercialized.
