WEBINARS

Stuart F. Brown

Base Oil Groups:

Manufacture,
Properties and
Performance

A detailed look at mineral, synthetic and even renewable oils

and the manufacturing processes used to make them.

AUTOMOBILE AND TRUCK ENGINES ARE THE WORLD’S BIGGEST CONSUMERS OF

KEY CONCEPTS LUBRICANTS, going through 20 million tons per year, which is about half of
total lubricant use. With vehicle makers pushing endlessly to meet stiffening
• PPourr point, viscosity,
vi ty, viscosity
visc ty efficiency and pollution standards, the automotive market drives the way
index and purity are thet e four oil companies produce base oils, which account for the lion’s share of the
physical properties that describe
deesc be volume of a bottle of motor oil.
base oils and
base a d dictatee how
how theyy Analyze the contents of a quart of motor oil and you will discover that
will perform
p form in service.
rvic . approximately 75%-85% of its volume consists of base oil. The remainder
is a package of additives that confers properties essential to protecting the
• Base oils
o l are classified
oi cl d by API into
to moving parts of gasoline and diesel engines. Viscosity modifiers, antioxidants
fi e groups according
five cording to
to their
th r and corrosion inhibitors are a few of the ingredients ensuring that modern
ingredients and performance
performance motor oils meet the auto industry’s performance specifications.
Both the additives and the base oil contribute to the oil’s ability to protect
characteristics.
haracterist .
the bearings, piston rings and other rotating and reciprocating engine parts
• Hydroprocessing is a method that requiring continuous lubrication. STLE-member Dr. John Rosenbaum, senior
project development engineer at Chevron Global Base Oils, says, “The base
typically uses
s three catalytic
oils themselves confer important properties to lubricants and are much more
reactors to produce Group II and than mere carriers for other ingredients.” The information in this article de-
Group IIII base
ba e oils. rives from an STLE Webinar on base oils that Rosenbaum delivered on Oct.
8, 2014, titled “Base Oils Groups I-V: Manufacturing, Properties and Perfor-

32 • APRIL 2015 T R I B O LO GY & LU B R I CAT I O N T EC H N O LO GY W W W. ST L E .O RG

 MEET THE PRESENTER

This article is based on a Webinar originally presented by STLE University on Oct. 8, 2014. “Base Oils Groups
I-V: Manufacturing, Properties and Performance” is available at www.stle.org: $39 to STLE members, $59 for
all others.
John Rosenbaum has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from San Diego State University and a doctorate
in materials science and mineral engineering from the University of California at Berkeley. He is the senior
project development engineer at Chevron Global Base Oils in Richmond, Calif., where he has spent 33 years. He
has 18 years of experience researching catalysts and process technologies, fuels and lubricant base oils. He is
also responsible for spearheading Chevron’s experimental program to make liquid fuels and lubricant base oil
from natural gas and worked on the ISODEWAXING® Catalyst System. He is the author/co-author of over 60 U.S.
Patents and several publications. You can reach John at rosenbaum@chevron.com. John Rosenbaum

mance.” He covered mineral, synthetic

Group Sulfur, Wt % Saturates V.I. Comments
and even renewable lubricants oils, and
the manufacturing processes used to I >0.03 and/or <90 80-119 Too much sulfur for current specs
make them. II ”0.03 and •90 80-119 Comparable purity
Base oils are described by four phys- Increasing VI
III ”0.03 and •90 •120
ical properties that dictate how they Synthetics – Traditionally Group IV,
will perform in service: IV All Polyalpha Olefins (PAOs) Now
Synthetics – include Group
Traditionally III IV
Group

All Stock Not Included in Groups I-IV S ll volumes

Small l - very high
hi h quality
lit
1. Pour point. The lowest temperature V and very low quality
(Pale Oils and Non-PAO Synthetics)
at which a sample of oil can be Source: API 1509, Appendix E, Section E.1.3

poured determines the pour point.

2. Viscosity. An oil’s resistance to flow Figure 1 | Classification of base oils.
defines the viscosity. Honey, for ex-
ample, is more viscous than water. 80-119. Demand for Group I oils is de- and Japanese car makers have expressed
clining, although they are still the larg- a wish to see viscosity continue to drop
3. Viscosity index (VI). As an oil’s tem- est single category in the global market. to 0W-12, 0W-8 and even 0W-4. Group
perature changes, so does its viscos- These oils are falling out of favor be- III also includes gas-to-liquid (GTL)
ity, defining its VI. A high-VI oil, for cause they contain too much sulfur and oils made from natural gas using a pro-
example, changes viscosity less with aromatics to be as stable as hydropro- cess developed in the 1920s by the Ger-
temperature than a low-VI oil. The cessed oils. They are commonly used in man chemists Franz Fischer and Hans
multigrade engine oils specified industrial and marine lubricants and in Tropsch. Shell is operating a large GTL
by vehicle makers require high-VI engine oils for older engines. plant in Qatar, but the method remains
base oils as a starting place in the Groups II and III are both hydropro- a complex one requiring a large invest-
formulation process. High-VI base cessed oils with comparable purity and ment in process equipment.
oils have lower volatility and are typically 99% saturates. The big differ- Group IV consists of polyalphaole-
designed to operate at low as well ence between them is that Group III has fins (PAOs), which are the traditional
as high temperatures. a VI of 120 or greater. More than 90% of synthetic stocks. By using mixtures of
4. Purity. Constituents of many lubri- all the volume of lubricants in the world different alphaolefins, formulators can
cants such as sulfur, nitrogen and can be made from Group II oils, which create oils with a VI as high as 140. The
polycyclic aromatic compounds are really the base stock workhorses— use of these oils is severely limited by
must be held within strict limits. especially in North America—where the cost and availability of feedstocks,
Group II dominates the base oil supply. which face competition from other ap-
CLASSES OF BASE OILS Group II oils come into their own when plications. As a result, the Group IVs are
Base oils are classified by the Ameri- a higher VI, along with low volatility, destined to remain a niche category.
can Petroleum Institute into five groups is needed. The Group IIIs are growing Group V embraces everything else,
(see Figure 1) according to their ingre- in use as fuel economy lubricants be- ranging from some very low-quality
dients and performance characteristics. come more important and car makers naphthenics all the way up to some
Group I base oil stocks contain use 0W-20 oils for the “factory fill” of very exotic synthetic oils. Other occu-
greater than 0.03% sulfur, less than 90% newly assembled engines. 0W-16 oil is pants of this group are organic esters,
saturates and have a VI ranging from already being used in some new engines compressor oil, some biodegradable

Who you gonna call? A complete list of STLE HQ staffers is available at www.stle.org. 33
fluids and the polyalkylene glycols that keting term than any-
are extremely non-flammable and thus thing that conforms to
suited for use as high-temperature hy- a scientific definition,”
draulic fluid. says Rosenbaum. “The
only place where a
MANUFACTURING PROCESSES synthetic lubricant
Group I oils are produced by solvent is really defined as
extraction and dewaxing processes. a PAO is Germany.
Solvent extraction starts with a heavy So there are a lot of
refinery feedstock from a crude distilla- other definitions of
tion unit that’s called vacuum gas oil. A synthetics out there,
very selective solvent removes much of and the buyer prob-
the sulfur, aromatic and nitrogen com- ably needs to beware
pounds. The resulting oil stream comes of something that just
Figure 2 | Chevron’s new base oil plant in Pascagoula, Miss.
out of the extractor still containing par- calls itself synthetic or
affins that need to be removed to make semisynthetic. What
it a base oil. A light solvent is added Miss., (see Figure 2) has hydroprocess- you really want is performance, and
and the mixture is refrigerated to a low ing reactors that are 70 feet tall, 15 the sophisticated customer will look
temperature at which the paraffins pre- feet in diameter and have walls a foot beyond the claim using the word syn-
cipitate and are filtered out. While the thick. Inside are three catalyst beds that thetic to the actual performance service
entire process is simple in concept, the remove sulfur and nitrogen from the categories and OEM approvals.”
maintenance and operating costs are feedstock and saturate it with hydro- A synthetic can be thought of as
relatively high. gen pressurized to 2,000 pounds per something that is created, where the end
Hydroprocessing is a method that square inch (see Figure 3). The plant material does not resemble the starting
typically uses three catalytic reactors to produces 25,000 barrels of base oil per material. This applies to the PAOs and
produce Group II and Group III base day. “Through the magic of sophisticat- also to esters that are made from veg-
oils. The process begins with the same ed catalyst technology plus some brute etable products, including canola oil.
vacuum gas oil feedstock as Group I, force high-pressure hydrogen, we just In the past 20 years, a new class of lu-
but runs it through a hydrocracker at pound these molecules and convert bricants derived from vegetable oils has
very high pressures, frequently above almost all of the contaminating ones come on the scene. Traditional unmodi-
2,000 pounds per square inch. The hy- into pure hydrocarbons,” Rosenbaum
drocracker reshapes the molecules, satu- explains.
rating a lot of the aromatic compounds
with hydrogen, which improves their SYNTHETIC LUBRICANTS
stability. It converts sulfur into hydrogen Although they account for just 1%-2%
sulfide gas and nitrogen into ammonia, of the volume of base oils produced,
creating a product called a waxy base lots of interest in recent years has fo- 1.0 ft
15 ft ID
oil that’s a lot cleaner than the output of cused on synthetic base oils and on oils
a solvent extraction and contains more produced from renewable and rerefined H2
than 90% saturated compounds. feedstocks.
The second reactor is a catalytic de- The traditional synthetics are PAOs
70 ft

waxer (also knowns as a hydroisomer- for which there is a limited production

H2
ization unit), where the wax molecules capacity in the world. As a result, they
are converted to isoparaffins and even are expensive and tend to find special-
more saturation occurs. Finally there ized applications where their unique
is a lower temperature but very high- properties such as good performance H2
pressure finishing step in which the in very high- or low-temperature con-
final few percent of residual aromatic ditions make them the ideal choice. In
compounds are saturated to form general, PAOs can be quite stable and
Group II base oils. A more severe hy- deliver very good performance under
drocracking process is used to produce extreme conditions, hence they find uses
Group III oils. in exotic applications such as spacecraft
A large hydrocracker is an impos- or at the top of tall windmills where very
ing piece of hardware. Chevron’s new long-lasting lubrication is needed. Figure 3 | Drawing of a large hydroprocess-
Group II base oil plant in Pascagoula, “Synthetics is really more of a mar- ing reactor.

34 • APRIL 2015 T R I B O LO GY & LU B R I CAT I O N T EC H N O LO GY W W W. ST L E .O RG

fied vegetable oils have long been used frequently less than virgin Group II oil, CONCLUSION
as lubricants, but their poor oxidation and some customers have expressed Having provided a tour of the boutique
stability and the fact that they are often concern over the variability of rere- base stocks, Rosenbaum reminds us
solid or nearly so at room temperature fined oil properties.” Another rerefinery that about 98% of base oils are still de-
has made them poor performers. product is “asphalt flux,” which can be rived from petroleum. The lion’s share
Modified vegetable oils are usually mixed into asphalt for road paving in of these are paraffinic or neutral oils
esters, a type of synthetics that are fre- states that permit it. derived from paraffinic crude stocks.
quently created by reacting a fatty acid When used motor oil is brought About 15% of the world’s base oils are
derived from vegetable oil with an al- to a rerefinery, the first step is usually naphthenes or pale oils, composed
cohol. Esters can have excellent low- separating out the water that’s almost largely of cyclic compounds made from
temperature properties and stability. always in it. Sludge, consisting of soot naphthenic crude stocks.
Vegetable oils can also be fed directly and some of the heavier additives, is As automotive lubricant specifica-
to a base oil refinery where oxygen is also separated, usually in some sort of tions continue to evolve and the avail-
stripped off to create a paraffin that short-path distillation process. Then ability of feedstocks changes around the
can usually be transformed to an iso- the remaining oil is fed to a low-pres- world, lubricant producers will need
paraffin. But the resulting molecules sure hydroprocessing unit for a process to stay on their toes to satisfy the de-
are fairly small, making the product a known as hydrotreating. This process manding auto industry. Hydroprocess-
low-viscosity base oil. operates at 500-800 pounds of hydro- ing will be the technology of choice in
Several of these biostocks are ame- gen pressure and saturates many of the all significant new base oil plants due
nable to having their properties modi- aromatic compounds in the used oil. to the appeal of converting undesirable
fied. Vegetable oils can be made into Sulfur compounds are transformed into molecules into desirable ones, rather
premium lubricants that may derive hydrogen sulfide gas from which sulfur than just extracting the unwanteds. Hy-
additional marketing advantages from can be reclaimed. droprocessing gives an operator much
being claimed as synthetic. The ulti- One of the major challenges in greater flexibility in running a plant and
mate goal would be to make some of rerefining is collecting the used oil. in selecting raw materials.
these natural feedstocks out of of cellu- A rerefinery can have more than 100 In spite of the market changes now
losic biowaste like cornstocks or wood trucks circulating in its area, gathering underway, Group I still dominates, ac-
waste. Being able to utilize those kinds oil and delivering it to a central col- counting for more than half the world’s
of products instead of food products lection facility for refining. In several base oil capacity. Many of the plants
for making base oils, however, will be states, used motor oil is classified as a producing these oils are small and old,
a while in coming. hazardous waste, which adds testing however, and will be shutting down
There are several other types of syn- and documentation requirements. Re- in the next 20 years. Growth will be
thetic base stocks such as phosphate refining can be a tough business. If fuel the trend for the Group II and Group
esters, polyalkylene glycols, alkylated prices spike, trucks may have to follow III oils, which are certainly preferred
aromatics and silicone oils, to name a shorter routes, which works against a in most automotive formulations. As
few. Although these oils combined do refinery’s economies of scale. demand increases for fuel-economy
not add up to 1% of the total global There has also been a movement lubricants, the higher VI oils will
base oil market, there are important to closed-loop rerefineries. These are have the advantage of being suitable
niche applications that require them. smaller facilities processing a couple for making low-viscosity lubricants
of hundred barrels daily coming from while maintaining the needed volatil-
REREFINED BASE OILS dedicated customers such as large ve- ity properties.
Rerefined base stocks are another cat- hicle-fleet operators that bring them In closing, Rosenbaum encourages
egory generating a lot of buzz lately. “I used oil for rerefining. The plants buy engineers to recognize the role base oils
remember when I was a teenager buy- hydrogen by the truckload for the rere- play in finished lubricants. “Additive
ing rerefined oil and putting it in my fining process, then blend the rerefined technology is very important,” he as-
car,” Rosenbaum recalls. “I’m not sure product with fresh oil and additives serts. “But selecting the right base oil is
there were any additives in it, and that and return it for use in the vehicle fleet. the first step in formulating a premium
it was not simply used oil which had There is the potential to realize signifi- lubricant.”
been filtered. But in recent years, re- cant operating cost savings through
refined stocks have gotten quite good, operating or purchasing from rerefiner-
if for no other reason than the starting ies. However, most fleet customers will
material, high-quality engine oil, is of- need proof that engine oil quality can Stuart F. Brown is a
ten so much better. Some of the new be maintained at a level required to sat- free-lance writer who
rerefineries can turn out decent Group isfy OEMs standards through multiple can be reached at
II base oil, although saturate content is rerefining cycles. www.stuartbrown.com.

The average person walks the equivalent of three times around the world in a lifetime. 35