What is automobile oil made of?

Lubricating oil generally consists of base oil and additives.

Base oil is the main component of lubricating oil, which determines its basic properties.

Additives can make up and improve the performance of base oil and give some new properties, which is an important part of lubricating oil.

1. Lubricating base oils are mainly divided into mineral base oils and synthetic base oils. Mineral base oils are widely used, with a large amount (about 95% or more), but synthetic base oils must be used in some applications, so these two base oils have developed rapidly.

Mineral oil base oil is extracted from crude oil. The main production processes of lube base oil include atmospheric and vacuum distillation, solvent deasphalting, solvent refining, solvent dewaxing, clay or hydrogenation supplementary refining. 1995 revised the current lube base oil standard in China, mainly revised the classification method, and added two special base oil standards of low pour point and deep refining. The most important thing to produce mineral lubricating oil is to choose the best crude oil.

The chemical composition of mineral base oil includes hydrocarbon and non-hydrocarbon mixtures with high boiling point and high molecular weight. Its composition is generally alkanes (linear, branched and multi-branched), cycloalkanes (monocyclic, bicyclic and polycyclic), aromatic hydrocarbons (monocyclic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), cycloalkyl aromatic hydrocarbons, organic compounds containing oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur, and non-hydrocarbon compounds such as gum and asphaltene.

Synthetic base oil is prepared from hydrocarbons extracted from natural gas and crude oil. At present, there is no specific regulation on the specific composition of synthetic oil in the world.

2. Additives are the essence of modern advanced lubricating oil. Proper selection and reasonable addition can improve its physical and chemical properties, endow lubricating oil with new special properties, or strengthen its original properties to meet higher requirements. According to the requirements of lubricating oil quality and performance, careful selection, careful balance and reasonable allocation of additives are the key to ensure the quality of lubricating oil. Commonly used additives include: antiwear agent, viscosity index improver, pour point depressant, antioxidant, detergent dispersant, friction regulator, oiliness agent, extreme pressure agent, defoamer, metal passivator, emulsifier, corrosion inhibitor, antirust agent, demulsifier, antioxidant and preservative.