How Are Engine Oil Lubricants Made?
Other People Are Reading
-
Base Product
-
Engine lubricants all start with a base product. With original engine oil, that base is crude oil (also used to make gasoline and diesel). With synthetic oil, the base product is often also a mix of crude oil, and a chemically synthesized mix of other non-petroleum elements that offer better viscosity performance. The base product alone is not suitable, and must be refined in order to work as a lubricant in an engine.
Refinement
-
Refinement essentially means separating unwanted chemicals, particles and tars in the crude oil. The crude oil is heated and diesel and gasoline separate first from the mix. Other elements like paraffin, tar and other minerals are more complexly connected to the crude and take longer to remove from the base mixture. The refining is generally done with clay, a substance consisting of small, pebble-like rocks that absorb minerals, but will filter out the clean motor oil.
-
Final Purification
-
The final product is treated with a substance called MEK (Methyl-Ethyl-Keytone) and then the motor oil is frozen. The motor oil will ultimately be bottled and sold remains in a liquid state while the unwanted materials freeze with the MEK treatment. Since the invention of refinement, many oil companies have improved their methods using new technology to utilize many elements that were discarded before.
-
