Patent ID: 7744742

Claim:
A process for producing a moderately aromatic isoparaffinic base oil from a distillate range product comprising: (a) providing a distillate range paraffin feed comprising paraffins and cycloparaffins; (b) mildly reforming the distillate range paraffin feed to convert at least a portion of the cycloparaffins to alkylaromatics and provide a mildly reformed distillate range stream; (c) treating a stream comprising the mildly reformed distillate range stream in a molecular redistribution reactor to provide a distributed stream; (d) dewaxing at least a portion of the distributed stream to provide a dewaxed stream; (e) combining at least a portion of the dewaxed stream with the stream to be processed in the molecular redistribution reactor to provide the distributed stream; and (f) isolating a moderately aromatic isoparaffinic base oil from the dewaxed stream.