Polymethyl Methacrylate Esters, Synthetic Lubricants Pour Point Depressant And Pour Point Mechanism

Lubricant is made by base oil and various additives. The additives are directly related to the use of lubricant performance. Pour point depressant is one of additives which is to improve the flow properties of lubricant at low-temperature. Development of high-performance pour point depressant of lubricant will not only enhance the use of performance, and effectively lowers the pour point of lubricant oil to improve low-temperature fluidity, but also increase oil production. Pour point depressant plays an important role on oil use, storage, transportation and production.This paper mainly studied the synthesis of methyl acrylate and application of pour point depressant. Hexadecyl methacrylate was synthesized by direct esterification. The best synthesis process was gained by a single factor and orthogonal experimental analysis with esterification yield as indicators. The optimal experiment conditions were as follows:when the molar ratio of methylacrylic acid and hexadecanol was 1.4:1; the amount of catalyst was 1.2%, inhibitor was 0.4%, reaction temperature was 120℃and time was 5h, toluene as the solvent. The yield of hexadecyl methacrylate was over 95% under these conditions. The product was tested by IR spectroscopy after the purification treatment. FTIR results shows that the product is methyl hexadecyl methacrylate.We chose styrene and maleic anhydride as monomers for radical copolymerization with different carbon chain lengths alkyl methacrylate in order to have a better sensitivity on the oil. Many kinds of pour point depressants were synthesized including SMA,A1,A2,A3,A4,B1,B2,B3. The FTIR and HNMR spectra analysis show that the product is the target product. And we measured the density and intrinsic viscosity of PPD. The relative molecular weight was calculated as well.To examine their depressive effect, these PPDs were used in hydrogenation base oil and paraffin base oil. The effect of PPD with greater side-chain carbon number is better than the one with low carbon number, while the opposite is true for the hydrogenation base oil. PPD also be used in several high-wax crude oil from Changqing Oil field. It was found that the effect of PPD with mixed alcohol is better than single alcohol. The greatest solid point depression is 13℃.In the end, the mechanism was studied by microscopic observation. We can conclude that the pour point depression is as wax crystal nuclei in base oil. The PPD may disperse and absorb small wax in solution, so it can reduces the pour point of oil.