Patent ID: 7652186

Claim:
A process for the oligomerization of alphaolefins comprising: (a) contacting an alphaolefin feedstock, the feedstock being selected from the group consisting of a) a mixture of alphaolefins selected from C8, C14 or C16 and b) a mixture of 40 wt % or greater of C10 and the remainder selected from C8 or C14, 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 produce a trimer of said at least one alphaolefin; (b) distilling off unreacted alphaolefin and dimers of said alphaolefin to obtain a bottoms product comprising said trimer; (c) hydrogenating said bottoms product to obtain a hydrogenated bottoms product; and then (d) fractionating said bottoms product to obtain at least one cut comprising a trimer product, wherein said trimer product comprises 85 wt % or greater of trimer.