(19)
(11) EP 0 027 722 A3

(12) EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION

(88) Date of publication A3:
10.06.1981 Bulletin 1981/23

(43) Date of publication A2:
29.04.1981 Bulletin 1981/17

(21) Application number: 80303661

(22) Date of filing: 16.10.1980
(84) Designated Contracting States:
DE FR GB IT NL

(30) Priority: 19.10.1979 US 86455

(71) Applicant: EXXON RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING COMPANY
 ()

(72) Inventor:
  • Broadhurst, Thomas Edwin
     ()

   


(54) Process for dewaxing hydrocarbons employing low-speed scraped-surface chillers


(57) A hydrocarbon oil dewaxing process comprises passing the waxy oil through a staged vertical tower, injecting cold solvent at a plurality of stages along the vertical tower under conditions of high agitation to achieve substantially instantaneous mixing at each point, continuing the chilling, preferably at a rate of from 0.55 to 4.44°C (1 to 8°F) per minute, by means of cold solvent injection until a temperature above the filtering temperature but less than 22.2°C (40°F) above the filtering temperature is reached. The oil is subsequently cooled to the wax separation temperature in rotating-element scraped-surface chillers. The operating speed of the rotating elements in the scraped surface chiller is in the range of from 8 to 14% of the original design operation speed. Operation at this reduced speed improves wax separation rates by about 10 to 20%while not substantially adversely affecting the heat transfer performance of the chillers.





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