AM-96-38 AN ECONOMICAL ROUTE TO HIGH QUALITY LUBRICANTS

Description:

The current trends in the automotive and industrial markets toward more efficient engines, longer drain intervals, and lower emissions all contribute to placing increasingly stringent performance requirements on lubricants. The demand for higher quality synthetic and non-conventional basestocks is expected to grow at a much faster rate than that of conventional lube basestocks to meet these higher performance standards. Yukong Limited has developed a novel technology (the Yukong UC0 Lube Process) for the economic production of high quality, high-viscosity-index lube basestocks from a fuels hydrocracker unconverted oil stream. A pilot plant based on this process has been producing oils for testing purposes since May 1994. A commercial facility designed to produce 3500 BPD of VHVI lube basestocks came on-stream at Yukong’s Ulsan refinery in October 1995. The Badger Technology Center of Raytheon Engineers & Constructors assisted Yukong during the development of the technology and prepared the basic process design package for the commercial facility. This paper presents process aspects of the technology and comparative data on investment and operating costs. Yukong lube basestock product properties and performance data are compared to basestocks produced by conventional means and by lube hydrocracking.