Motor oil production: characteristics, technology and manufacturing process

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

The production of motor oil began at the end of the 19th century. The ancestor of this process is considered to be John Ellis, who worked on lubricants for a car engine. Today, various additives for the production of motor oils have expanded the range so much that it will not be possible to quickly understand it. So how is this raw material produced and what is its value?

Raw materials

The production of motor oil, like any other, is not complete without raw materials - the substance from which the final product is obtained. Mineral oil is made from petroleum. But before it gets to the lubricants plant, it needs to go through a series of cleanings at oil refineries. First of all, the lightest benzene compounds are evaporated from oil - these are alcohol, kerosene, gasoline of various octane numbers. And when the oil, after numerous treatments, turns into fuel oil, it enters the oil production line.

It would seem that fuel oil is so thick that it is the final product of oil refining, however, after vacuum cleaning, it is split into mineral oil and tar. That's just the tar and is the remainder of the processing of crude oil. But it does not disappear, but goes to the production of asph alt throughout the country. Thus, the production of motor oils in Russia indirectly helps to develop road construction.

First stage production

At the first stage in the production of motor oil, a process of hydroconversion takes place with the participation of hydrogen. Particles of this gas purify the base raw material from impurities of nitrogen and sulfur compounds. The oil obtained in this way belongs to the 2nd group. This distinguishes Russian-made motor oil from other products, because not all companies use hydroconversion in production. By the way, during this process, the oil acquires its color, transparency and specific smell.

Second stage of production

The production of engine oil at the second stage includes the addition of appropriate additives to the product. Since the requirements for it are different, in accordance with the design of car engines, as well as their operating conditions, there are many varieties. For example, in summer it is recommended to use oil with a higher viscosity, and in winter, respectively, with a lower one. Diesel engines require one type of engine oil, gasoline engines require another, and gas-powered vehicles requirethird.

All of these varieties can be obtained by adding the appropriate additives to the base raw material. Each additive requires its own dissolution temperature. For some, 0 degrees is enough, others 100, and still others dissolve only at 120 or even 150 degrees. But at the same time, many additives are destroyed at extremely high temperatures. That is, while an additive that requires 120 degrees is dissolved, another may begin to dissolve already at 100 degrees. This circumstance forces manufacturers to add additives one at a time, alternately heating and cooling the oil.

Compounding devices

Modern motor oil plants use a variety of compounding devices, that is, mixing base raw materials with additives, because conventional heating is not enough for this.

The oil is mixed in special tanks. This uses either a slow agitator, a fast fan, or pressurized air.

Each method has its own disadvantages and advantages used to produce one type or another. For example, if the oil contains a component that is easily split by air, up to spontaneous combustion, then, of course, the mixing method with a fan is used.

It also matters what the viscosity of the resulting oil is, this affects the speed of mixing.

Additive components are added with special dispensers to avoid imbalance. In modern motor oil production facilities, installations forcompounding fully automatic. Factories buy them from well-known manufacturers such as Siemens and Halske. Or make them yourself.

Types of additives

For each type of oil, one or another set of additives is used. There may not be 2 or 3, but much more. The characteristics of the oil and its quality depend on the quantity.

For example, standard mineral oil may include: H-paraffin, cycloparaffins, polycondensed naphthenes, monoaromatic and polyaromatic compounds, isoparaffin.

The high quality product contains branched chain isoparaffin. And this is not a complete list of ingredients, because many of them are the trade secret of the manufacturer. In this sense, the technology for the production of motor oil is akin, for example, to the production of Coca-Cola - its composition is also known to a few specialists and is carefully guarded.

Quality of modern products

The process of producing engine oil has become so technologically advanced that the resulting product is an order of magnitude better than what was used in cars 10 or 20 years ago.

Modern oil has a high oxidative stability, which makes it more durable. And if earlier the oil had to be changed every 3-5 thousand kilometers, now it can withstand both 7 and 10 thousand.

Another innovation is that the oil can withstand higher temperatures. This leads to the fact that carbon deposits and pollution do not form in the engine. Viscosity has becomestable, independent of ambient and engine temperature. This protects the moving parts of the engine for longer and improves fuel economy.

Modern oil freezes only at extremely low temperatures. Therefore, the engine, filled with a quality product, easily starts even in the most severe weather conditions.

Production of motor oil in Russia

Engine oil produced in the Russian Federation, in terms of its characteristics, is in no way inferior to its counterparts in other countries. Moreover, it is much cheaper. This happens for many reasons. First, raw materials for production are extracted by Rosneft throughout Russia and provided to factories at low prices. Specialists for factories are trained in Russia, for example, graduates of Samara State University work at the Novokuibyshevsk Oil Refinery.

Not far from the mentioned plant is the Middle Volga Research Institute for Oil Refining, that is, the production process is constantly being improved by the specialists of this institution.

As a result, Rosneft automobile oil is recommended for the products of AvtoVAZ and Volga Automobile Plant. This oil is able not to lose its properties for 15,000 runs. At the same time, its price is much lower than foreign analogues. After all, the entire production process takes place at one plant, which means that there are no additional margins. Even the plastic bottles for packaging the finished oil are made in the same factory, notbought from another company.

Used oil and the environment

The situation in Russia with used engine oil is not very good. To date, only 15% of used oil is recycled, the rest is dumped into the ground. This is unacceptable for the life of the entire biosphere of the planet. Waste oil, getting into the soil, penetrates into groundwater and goes into rivers and lakes. Sooner or later, his presence will have a deadly effect on people drinking such water. Understanding this, for example, in Germany, almost 55% of all used oil is recycled.

And if in everyday life you can use a small amount of used oil, for example, to lubricate a bicycle or a chainsaw, then in large industries it is used in hydraulic systems, transmissions of agricultural machinery, for processing wooden sleepers and preserving equipment in the army. That is, there are many ways to use it, but it often turns out that recycling is more expensive than a new product. Hence the reluctance to reuse raw materials. A person, thinking about his enrichment, often forgets about everything else.

Conclusion

If the user has accumulated too much used oil, it can be handed over to collection points for just such oil, open throughout the country. From there, it goes to factories where, after being processed and refined, it can be made into fuel or find other uses.

For your information, the methods of physical and chemical purification of used oil are carried out by the same scientific andresearch institutes that were engaged in its production. So there are no unsolvable questions for them in this problem.