An Experimental Study on the Operational Factors Affecting the Oil Content of Wax during Dewaxing Process: Adopting a DOE Method

The oil content of the wax produced in a dewaxing process is the key economic parameter thatshould be reduced as much as possible. Some factors such as the type of solvents, cooling rate,temperature, and solvent to oil ratio influence the dewaxing process. Due to the fact that crude oildiffers from place to place and since the operational conditions for wax extraction vary for differenttypes of crude oil, the objective of this work is to study the operational conditions for waxproduction from an Iranian raffinate sample used in Sepahan Oil Company. All the experiments areconducted based on a design of experiment (DOE) technique for minimizing the oil content of thewax produced. The effects of five factors have been determined quantitatively and appropriate levelsare suggested for reducing the oil content. The results show that the solvent ratio, solventcomposition, and cooling rate play the most important role in minimizing the oil content of theproduced wax.

Keywords:

Oil Content , Wax , Dewaxing Process , Design of Experiment