Can the slurry from catalytic cracking be used as a raw material for lubricants after treatment?

The oil slurry contains approximately 50% saturated hydrocarbons, 40% aromatics and polycyclic aromatics, and 10% resins and asphalts. Effective separation of these components followed by further processing can yield significant economic benefits. Saturated hydrocarbons are excellent raw materials for catalytic cracking, while aromatics, resins, and asphalts serve as high-quality materials for producing carbon black, needle coke, heavy-duty road asphalt, rubber filler oils, plastic plasticizers, heat transfer fluids, carbon fibers, and more. Many domestic researchers have conducted extensive work in this area; Xiao Zhendong and others from the former Nanjing Refinery Research Institute carried out relatively systematic studies. The following is a brief overview: I. Extraction, separation, and utilization of furfural; 1. Separation conditions: Furfural is used as the solvent for extraction and separation. The operation is carried out in an extraction tower in reverse flow, with a solvent volume ratio of 0.8:1 to 1:1. The extraction temperature ranges from 50°C to 70°C, and the contact time is greater than 0.5 hours. 2. Separation efficiency: The saturated hydrocarbon content in the raffinate is greater than 98%, the carbon residue is less than 0.04%, the acid value is less than 0.02, the total nitrogen content is less than 10 ppm, the sulfur content is around 0.3%, and the C/H ratio is 5.83. It constitutes high-quality feedstock for catalytic cracking, enabling an expansion of the sources of such feedstock and improving its quality. The oil extracted mainly contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, alkyl aromatics, as well as gums and asphalts, making it an extremely useful raw material for the chemical industry. 3. Utilization of the extracted oil: After furfural is recovered from the extracted oil, it is divided into three fractions for separate use: the fraction at 490°C is used in the production of heavy road asphalt. Nanjing Refinery primarily processes crude oil intended for pipeline transportation; previously, qualified road asphalt could not be produced directly from vacuum residue. The fraction above 490°C is an excellent component for asphalt modification, and various grades of road asphalt can be produced by adjusting the proportion of this fraction used. For example, by mixing 10# construction asphalt produced by Nanjing Refinery with the fraction at >490°C in a 1:1 ratio, AH—90# heavy traffic road asphalt can be produced. Tests conducted by the Jiangsu Provincial Transportation Research Institute have shown that this blended asphalt meets all the technical requirements for heavy traffic road asphalt; its key technical parameters, as well as its high-temperature and water stability, are superior to those of currently available heavy traffic road asphalt on the market. Anqing Petrochemical Complex built the first catalytic oil slurry extraction and separation unit in China, capable of producing large quantities of extracted aromatics each year. To further improve economic efficiency, a project was undertaken to develop ’general-purpose carbon fiber spinning pitch’ using extracted heavy aromatics as raw material. The results showed that: 1. Fractions with a boiling point of >450°C possess good spinnability. Recommended process conditions: quinoline-insoluble substances in the raw material

No, because the distillation range of the oil slurry itself is quite wide, and it must be fractionated to produce narrower distillation fractions before it can be used. Additionally, the oil slurry contains a high amount of aromatics, which gives it poor stability; therefore, it is not suitable as a raw material for lubricants

There are reports on alkylating polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in oil slurry to produce lubricant components