Predictive methods for density and refractive index of naphthenic lubricating oils during solvent extraction process

Lubricating oils are usually produced by solvent extraction to separate aromatics in order to achieve the desired specifications and better quality products.Among the different properties of lubricating oils,density and refractive index are some of the most important properties which can both be used for petroleum fluid characterization.Predictions of density and refractive index for naphthenic oils during solvent extraction by DMSO obtained by the pseudo-component approach and the quadratic correlation were both examined.The pseudo-component approach is a method to predict density and refractive index from composition while the latter merely relates density to refractive index.Results indicated that the predictions yielded by the pseudo-component method were in good agreement with experimental data for naphthenic oils.And the use of a function of refractive index(FRI_(20))as a pseudo-component property remarkably improved n_(20)predictions for the naphthenic mixtures.However,the density and refractive index predictions obtained by the quadratic correlation exhibited significantly higher de-viations for naphthenic oils than those for paraffinic oils.Thus a new modified correlation of the same functional form was proposed for naphthenic oils.The modification significantly improved predictions for naphthenic oils,which presented similar accuracy as the pseudo-component approach.And the previous correlation was still used for paraffinic oils.Additionally,effect of temperature on density and refractive index of naphthenic oils was examined.Results showed that the modified quadratic correlation was accurate for describing the relationship between density and refractive index of naphthenic oils at 20-90℃.The temperature dependence of density and refractive index for the raffinates and the extracts could be accurately described by the thermal coefficients for saturates and aromatics,respectively.Regarding the refractive index variation of the extracts with temperature,the empirical equation was proved to be a better option compared with the method using the thermal coefficient for aromatics.

Simulation of Solvent Extraction for Naphthenic Lubricating Base Oils

Solvent extraction is the process of separating aromatics from vacuum distillates for the production oflubricating base oils. In this study, the authors use dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) instead of furfural as solvent, in light of itshigher selectivity, to obtain extracts with a high aromatic content for naphthenic lubricating base oils. We systematicallyinvestigated effects of the solvent-to-oil (S/O) ratio and extraction temperature on the yield of the extract, efficiency ofaromatic removal, and composition of the extracts and raffinates. The results showed that the aromatic content of extractsfor naphthenic oils could reach a high value of about 80%. The solvent maintained a high selectivity for aromatics fornaphthenic oils even under a high S/O ratio and a high extraction temperature. Moreover, the efficiency of aromatic removalfor naphthenic lubricating base oils could be enhanced by increasing either the S/O ratio or the extraction temperature,although these measures had limited effects in practice. Following this, we used the non-random two-liquid (NRTL) modelbased on the pseudo-component approach to simulate the liquid-liquid equilibrium of the system of DMSO + naphtheniclubricating base oils, and determined the parameters of binary interaction through regression based on the data on phaseequilibrium. The modeling results showed that the predicted yield, content of the solvent, and composition of the raffinatesand extracts were in good agreement with those obtained in the experiments. This validates the reliability of the model usedto represent the DMSO + naphthenic lubricating base oil system. Both the experimental data and the method of simulationreported here can help optimize the extraction of naphthenic lubricating base oils, and provide a better understanding of thecorresponding process.

Prediction of Density and Refractive Index of Lubricating Oils during Secondary Solvent Extraction Process by Furfural

To meet the requirements for high aromatic content and low polycyclic aromatic(PCA)concentration,eco-friendly aromatic-rich rubber extender oils are usually produced by two-stage solvent extraction processes with furfural.Among the different properties of rubber processing oils,density and refractive index are some of the most important properties related to their final quality.Two types of methods,including a pseudo-component approach by using mixing rules and several correlations,were used for calculation of density and refractive index at 20℃ of paraffinic furfural-extract oils and their secondary raffinates.Results indicated that similar accuracy was obtained for predicting the density and the refractive index of furfural+furfural-extract paraffinic oil systems.However,the quadratic correlation presents its advantage over the pseudo-component approach when the composition of oils is not available.Moreover,the quadratic correlation was also used for naphthenic lubricating oils during two-stage solvent extraction processes.The predictions showed much larger discrepancies with respect to experimental values than those of paraffinic lubricating oils,which indicated that the quadratic correlation was more suitable for paraffinic oils with a CN value of below 37%.