Production of Petroleum Waxes

The main production processes of petroleum waxes include dewaxing and degreasing of wax-containing oils, refining, molding and packaging. Since the commercial production of petroleum wax began in 1867, the production process of petroleum wax has made significant technical progress: the dewaxing of petroleum wax has developed from the initial low temperature deposition dewaxing to the solvent dewaxing and de-oiling combined process, and the refining process has gradually transitioned from the chemical acid and alkali refining and adsorption refining to the modern hydrogenation process. Forming and packaging also developed from intermittent production to automated forming and packaging process, and in the modern oil refining enterprises have been widely used.
China has also developed a variety of advanced petroleum wax production processes suitable for national conditions, such as full-scale filtrate solvent recycling de-waxing and de-oiling combined process, hydrogenation refining process and automated molding and packaging equipment. These technologies are on a par with the advanced level in the world, but the energy consumption of the production equipment in China is relatively high, and backward processes such as wax extraction, sweating and white earth refining are still retained. Therefore, the development of domestic petroleum wax preparation technology is not balanced. In the future, new technologies should be gradually adopted to eliminate the old ones, reduce energy consumption and improve the economic efficiency of the plant.

The following is the main technical progress of petroleum wax preparation process and equipment:
1833 Separation of wax from petroleum
1867 Commercial production of petroleum wax
1927 The first ketobenzene dewaxing plant was introduced
1938 Development of the successful dichloroethane-mono-dichloromethane dewaxing process by the company Edirino.
Dichloromethane-1,2-dichloromethane dewaxing process was successfully developed by Edirino
1954 Establishment of a spray wax dewaxing plant with a capacity of 55 t/d in the Federal Republic of Germany.
55 t/d spray wax de-waxing plant in the Federal Republic of Germany.
1954 The ketone oil was introduced in the Orem refinery of Union Oil Company, California, USA.
The ketobenzene dewaxing unit was converted to a M1BK solvent de-waxing unit at the Orem Refinery of Union Oil Company, California, USA.
M1BK solvent dehydration unit
In 1957, the world’s first paraffin hydrotreating unit was put into operation at the Sarnia Refinery in Canada.
Sarnia Refinery in Canada
In 1966, the first isopropyl alcohol urea dewaxing plant was put into production in China.
1971 China’s Daqing Petroleum and Chemical Corporation built a paraffin wax plant.