New Method for Viscosity Estimation of Waxy Lube Oil/MEK-Toluene Solvent Composition

This paper presents a newly developed method to estimate the dynamic viscosity of lubricating oil feedstock/solvent composition in solvent dewaxing process, where the high normal paraffin components are to be extracted from the mixture. A reliable technique to determine the flow properties in the complex multi-components mixture depends on selecting high carbon number, from the C20 to C40 chain, as a solute and light one, bellow C20, as a liquid that matches the wax mass fraction in the light portion of the oil. The study focuses on the viscosity in the dissolution region (liquid phase) to characterize the feedstock/solvent composition behavior. The tested feedstock is ASE30 and the solvent is MEK-Toluene. The selected high carbon numbers are C33, C34, and C45, while the light one is C10. The obtained viscosity results by the proposed method were found to be in good agreement with the predicted viscosities of multi mixture components using the available mixed rules procedure reported in the literature. It can be concluded that the linkage between the solubility model and the carbon number selection could govern the characteristics of the waxy lube oil/MEK-Toluene solution.