Experimental Study on the Operational Factors that Affect the Oil Content of the Wax during Dewaxing Process by Adopting DOE Method

The oil content of the waxes produced in dewaxing process is the key economical parameter that should be reduced as low 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 oil differs from place to place and as such the operational conditions for wax extraction vary from crude to crude, the objective of this work is to study the operational conditions for wax production from an Iranian raffinate used in Sepahan Oil Company. All the experiments are conducted based on design of experiment technique (DOE) for minimizing the oil content of the wax produced. The effects of the five factors have been determined quantitatively and appropriate levels are suggested for reducing the oil content. The results show that the solvent ratio and solvent composition and cooling rate have the most important role in minimizing the oil content of produced waxes.