In line with new government standards, Chinese producers are using higher-grade oils for superior products.
After environmental concerns prompted the country's government to implement National IV standard at the beginning of this year, lubes producers and refineries have been fighting to meet the new criteria. By May, it seemed many companies were adjusting adequately.
Cleaner lubes means a cleaner environment Image: China Lubricant |
According to Chinese standards there are four grades of base oil: la, lb, lc and ld (where lc is the highest and la the lowest.)
At Maoming Petrochemicals Corp, a Chinese lubes producer owned by Sinopec Group, new research and technology has allowed them to boost the amount of National III and IV standard lubes made with base oil grades lb and above.
In the first five months of this year, the amount of grade lb base oils used at Maoming, increased by 6.7% points to 24,432 tons, accounting for 92.2% of total base oil consumed.
Refining at Daqing, China’s largest oil field and one if its larger refineries, a new isodewaxing catalyst is being used to improve the yield of quality base oils for lubricants production.
In the first six months of the year, the field processed 97,000 tons of crude to make almost 80,000 tons of high-grade base oil for lubricants. The field is also making significant breakthroughs developing hydro-isodewaxing catalyst technology.
The PIC-812 isodewaxing catalyst for base oils was developed through a collaboration between Daqing and the China Petrochemical Institute. Previously, only a handful of foreign companies had access to this technology.