Patent ID: 8168838

Claim:
A process for the preparation of a synthetic predominantly single carbon number hydrocarbon fluid comprising the steps of: (a) contacting an alpha olefin having a carbon number of 4 to 30 with a single site catalyst under conditions effective to produce reactive hydrocarbon oligomers that contain reactive double bonds and comprising predominantly dimers, trimers, and tetramers, wherein at least 10 weight percent of such reactive hydrocarbon oligomers is at least one of trimers and tetramers; (b) separating at least one of said trimers and tetramers in said reactive hydrocarbon oligomers; (c) dimerizing said separated at least one of said trimers and tetramers by contacting said separated at least one of said trimers and tetramers with a dimerization catalyst thereby producing an unsaturated synthetic hydrocarbon fluid; and (d) contacting said unsaturated synthetic hydrocarbon fluid with hydrogen in the presence of a hydrogenation catalyst thereby producing a synthetic hydrocarbon fluid having predominantly single carbon number.