ENGINE OIL PRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION: Engine oil or motor engine oil is a liquid lubricant used to oil (lubricate) heat engines. Auto engines of two stroke or multiple stroke use different grades of engine oil depending on the requirements of the cylinders and other components of the particular engine chamber.
Engine oil comes in viscose liquids of transparent to golden, yellowish or greenish to reddish colour. They are mainly base on synthetic or petroleum derived oils. Hence motor engine oil is oil with specific additives for specialized functions. Engine oil is used in all types of petrol and diesel engines.
The synthetic engine oil is fast replacing the petroleum Base oil especially for multi grade engine oils.
RAM MATERIALS
The major raw material for engine oil:
(1) BASE OIL or SYNTETIC OILS: such as polyalphaoliphene(PAO) and sulpholene. The other additives include:-
(2) Oxidation & corrosion inhibitors: Zinc Dialkyl-dithiophosphate and zinc-Di-iso-octyldithio-phosphate combine the antirust, oxidation and corrosion properties of zinc and phosphorus in this regard. There are ready made packs in the market that requires just about 5-6% dosage in the engine oil production.
(3) Viscosity index improvers: These materials keep the viscosity in a stable form even at extreme high or low temperatures. Ethylene-propylene copolymer(EMP) is one of the most efficient. They are also regarded as Thickeners here.
(4) Extreme pressure Additives: Chlorinated-paraffin-Di-n- butyl phosphoric Acid and Trycresyl-phosphate are good ones. They keep the oil intact at extreme pressures.
(5) Antifoams: Methyl silicon oil.
(6) Detergents: calcium sulphonate helps to cleans foreign dirt that find their way into the engine chambers.
(7) Dispersants: They ensure that all ingredients mix properly and stay homogeneous. Polyisobutylene-succimide and Alkyl sucimide are in use.
(8) Pour point Depressant: Alky naphthalene, polyAlpha olefin and polymethacrylate are used separately. They reduce free flow of the oil in plane language.
(9) Oiliness Additives: pulverized olefin, cotton seed oil and benzotriazole are used.
(10) Others are metal passivator, emulsion inhibitor etc. NN-disalicy lidene-propyl-diamine (metal passivator) and Amine epoxide condensate (emulsion inhibitor) are available.
(11) Colorants are optional but where needed, oil green red, yellow, etc are used.
Note: There is an all purpose oil additive pack that is in the market which requires that 5.4-11% of it is used and you would have added “all” the needed additives in that batch of production. It is called lubricant Addition single base, available from: www proschem. Com
Equipment/Tools
1. Mixer:- This can be manual or automated with stainless steel tanks (150-300rpm)
2. Storage Tanks:- Various types and stainless.
3. Weighing scale and measuring Cylinders.
4. Boiler kettle:- Stainless Tank heated directly or indirectly using conventional fuels and others. The boiler can be fitted with a lw speed mixer of about 150-500rpm
5. filling & Packaging Units: this can be manual or automated.
6. Personal productive equipment such as Respirators, Eye goggles, Caps, Hand gloves, Boots etc
7. Clay Treatment Tank fitted with heating coil(optional).
8. Laboratory Tools like Viscosity Cup, Flash Point Apparatus, Friction
Tester Pour Point Apparatus
9. Filtration unit-filter press
10. Cooling/Condenser unit (As required)
PACKAGING MATERIALS
2 Liters, 4 Liters, 20 Liters and higher plastic or metal container in use. These containers will carry labels containing.
• Band Name
• Manufacturer
• Date and Batch Numbers
• Other useful instructions.
Smaller 2 litres and 4 litres can be packed in cartons.
Space:- A capacity of 200 litres per day (i.e 1 ton per week) will require about two to three standard rooms depending on the size of the rooms, smaller scale will need smaller space. The bigger the scale the bigger the space that will be required.
Labour:- One person can produce 200 to 1000litres per day. If only blending is involved there may be used for other staff as sales and secretary ship. Where production starts from refining base oil, 2-3 people will be needed to produce 1000-2000 litres but cost of production will lower as cheaper material will be used.
QUALITIES OF A GOOD LUBRICANT (ENGINE OIL)
1. It must reduce friction between two moving surfaces to the least minimum.
2. It must reduce wear of asperities (peaks) of surface that are in motion.
3. It must provide continuous fluid film between two surfaces
4. It must act as a cooling medium
5. It must act as a sealing agent
6. It must prevent corrosion
7. It must have a low pour pressure (i.e. must resist high pressure)
8. It must resist high temperature
9. It must maintain adequate viscosity for the particular service condition
10. It must have low freezing point
11. It must resist high oxidation
12. It must have a high boiling point.
QUALITY MEASUREMENTS INSTRUMENT FOR LUBRICANTS.
1. Viscosity:- Zhan Cup, Viscosity
2. Flash Point:- Pensky marten’s apparatus
3. Pour Point:- Pour Point apparatus
4. Emulsification:- Chemical Tests
5. Volatility:- Vapourmeter
6. Specific Gravity:- API Instrument
7. Viscosity Index (i.e. low variation of viscosity with temperature): viscometer.
IMPORTANT STANDARD SPECIFICATIONS
Most engine oil standard specification are tailored to meet the following standardization agencies namely:-
Society for Automobile Engineers - SAE
American Petroleum Institue - API
Other agencies are available but most of the manufactures follow SAE and API because they have been there for long.
General Specifications
(1) Regular Oil - Straight Minerals Oils
(2) Premium Oil - Contains oxidation Inhibitor
(3) Heavy Duty Oil - Contains Oxidation Inhibitor and Detergents
(4) Multigrade Oil - A Hybird of Oils that can:-
(a) Resist Heat - May contain Silicone etc
(b) Resist Pressure - May contain Silicone etc
© Anti-Rust - May contain Glycol etc
(d) Anti-Foaming - May contain no Vegetable Oil
(e) Resist Oxidation - May contain no Vegetable Oil
(f) Resist Sludge formation - May contain detergent
(g) Anti-Freeze - May contain Glycols etc
They include the following:-
SAE10W-20
SAE10W-30
SAE10W-40
PRODUCTION PROCESSES:
1. Base Oil Based Engine Oil: If petroleum type base oil is to be used it will
be necessary to test the water, wax, other impurities before it is used for blending engine oil as it is called.
The process of removing unwanted water, wax and other impurities is called base refining.
Step 1: The oil is (say 100 litres) is placed in the clay treatment tank and 4-5kg of clay is mixed with it and heated to about 2500C by the heating coil. At 1000C the water content evaporates and at 2500C to 3000C, the oil vaporizes and it is condensed with a condenser and collected in a clean tank. The collected oil is filtered in a fitter press after cooling.
Oil can also be filtered after boiling without condensation.
Note: This type of purified Base Oil is also available from the major oil marketing companies and can be used directly as below:
Step 2: Refined base oil from above is blended as contained in the formulations below:
Standard Engine Oil Formulations
1. Regular Grade: 100 liters Batch
Base Oil - - - - 81 liters
Lubricant Additive Compound - - 4.5 liters
Polyalphaolefin (optional) - - 4.5 Liters
TOTAL 100 Litres
2. Premium Grade: 100 litres Batch
Base Oil - - 80-81 litres
Cotton seed oil (Refined) - - 4 – 5 litres
Oxidation & Corrosion inhibitor - 4 – 5 litres
Viscosity index improver - - 1.5 – 2 litres
Calcium Sulphonate - - 0.5-1 litre
Trycresylphosphate - - 0.5-1 litre
Dispersant - - 0.5-1 litres
Polyalphaoletin (optional) - - 4.0 litres
Colorant (optional) - - 1 -2 TSP
TOTAL 100 Litres
Add 3-4% (i.e 3-4 litres o9f Extreme pressure additive for Heavy Duty (HD) grade.
SYNTHETIC ENGINE OIL
3. Multigrade: 100 litres Batch
Note: Multigrade engine oil should be PAO or sulpholene synthetics oil.
A 50:50 blend of PAO and Base oil is also in use.
P.A.O. (or Sulpholene) - 90 litres
Zinc-D-Dithiophosphate - 5 litres
Lubricant Oil Additive - 5 litres
Colorant (optional) - 1-2 TSP
TOTAL 100 litres
Note: Colorant can be oil soluble Green, Red, Yellow Etc.
(d) Processing
Measure out all the ingredients as contained in the formulation and mix in
Stainless tank mixer of medium or low speed. The Thickener may be added last. When homogenous check for Clearity, Viscosity and pack. If notr clear allow to stand for about 1 hour and filter if necessary through a filter press.
Note:
1. To obtain SAE 10W – 40, the viscosity of SAE 10W-20 can simply be raised by using PAO or more synthetic oils. The later will be preferable.
2. Thickeners like polystyrene or other compounds like ethyl acetate .
3. TSP means table spoon full (5 mls) while tsp means teaspoon full (2 ½ mls). ½ litre is 500 mls, ¼ litre is 250 mls, 1/8 litre is 125 mls and 1 litre is 1000mls.
4. Q.S. means sufficient quantity (as required)
5. Materials may be varied according to specific requirements.
6. To make 10 litres of oil divide all inputs by 10.
QUALITY PARAMETERS
1. Viscosity - should meet standard as expected
2. Clearity - clear not turbid
3. Lubrication - should prevent friction as expected
4. Oiliness - should not dry fast or skin
5. Anti Rust - should resist rusting
Note: Synthetic Engine Oil (Multigrade) meets all these parameter. More quality control can be contracted to an expert like a public analyst.
Quick test methods
How to test for water in oil.
Take about 10mls of Base or other oils that is clear in a conical flask observe the colour and note it. Add ½ to 1tsp of white copper sulphate salt into the oil and shake well for about 1 minute.
Result: If a blue colour is observed, water is in the oil.
HOW TO TEST FOR WAX IN BASE OIL
Place 10mls of base oil in a container like conical flask and cover well. Put the container into the freezer and freeze to about 200C. if wax is present it will start forming solids.
Note: Avoid using base oils with a lot of wax content. Above 5% is not ok.
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