Patent ID: 7544850

Claim:
A process for the oligomerization of linear alphaolefins comprising: (a) contacting a mixture of linear alphaolefins consisting of about 1 to about 20 wt % 1-hexene, about 40 to about 80 wt % 1-decene, about 10 to about 50 wt % 1-dodecene, and about 1 to about 20 wt % 1-tetradecene, an alphaolefin oligomerization catalyst, an alcohol promoter, and an ester promoter in at least one continuously stirred reactor under oligomerization conditions for a time sufficient to achieve a steady state reaction mixture; (b) distilling off unreacted alphaolefin and dimers of said mixture to obtain a bottoms product comprising said trimer and heavier oligomers; (c) hydrogenating said bottoms product to obtain a hydrogenated bottoms product; and then (d) fractionating said hydrogenated bottoms product to obtain an overhead product and a bottoms product, different from said hydrogenated bottoms product, wherein the overhead product and the bottoms product both have a nominal viscosity at 100° C. of about 12 cSt or less.