Patent ID: 6317654
Filing Date: 2001-11-13
Classification: C10M

Abstract:
A method for making a lubricant base stock to be used in manufacturing a lubricant for a particular application from a petroleum refinery stream, the lubricant base stock and the refinery stream being characterizable according to a plurality of compositional components common to the base stock and to the refinery stream, each compositional component varying in amount with respect to different lubricant base stocks and to different refinery streams, the method comprising the steps of:identifying particular ones of the plurality of compositional components in a base stock that, in combination, are probative of lubricant performance for the particular application;determining an acceptable range for a combination of the identified compositional components at at least two viscosities from a plurality of performance tests on a plurality of lubricant products, each lubricant product having a viscosity, the plurality of lubricant products having a plurality of different viscosities, thereby defining a compositional model at each of the at least two viscosities;adjusting for viscosity variations for lubricant base stocks whose viscosities differ from that of the at least two viscosities by adjustment of the compositional model's parameters from at least two compositional models at values of viscosity differing from those of a candidate lubricant base stock to derive an acceptable range of compositional components, in combination, at the viscosity of the candidate lubricant base stock;determining the amounts of the identified components which are required in the base stock for acceptable performance in the particular application;determining the amounts of the identified components in the refinery stream, in combination, are not within the acceptable range for such identified components; andrefining the refinery stream to produce the lubricant base stock having the identified components in combination in the compositional ranges for acceptable performance of the lubricant base stock in the particular application.