The Improvement of the Quality of Raffinate Obtained from Solvent Extraction of Lubricating Oils

摘要

Vacuum distillates of an Egyptian crude oil were subjected to solvent extraction process applying N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP) and furfural as dearom-atization solvents. The study shows that the extraction solvent together with the temperature and solvent-to-oil ratio have a significant effect on the yield and quality of produced lubricating oils. The optimum temperature for extracting light waxy distillates with NMP is 55℃ at the solvent-to-feed ratio 2:1. These conditions are appropriate to remove the major portion of aromatics from the raffinate. The apparent activation energy (Ea), enthalpy (△H*), entropy (△S*), and free energy of activation (△G*) were calculated for the solvent dearomatization process.