Synthetic Fluids

Polyalphaolefins

Synthetic base fluids for high-performance lubricants and functional fluids can be prepared by oligomerizing Chevron Phillips Chemical's alpha olefins, particularly alpha olefins 10 and 12. The resulting oligomers, consisting of dimers, trimers, tetramers and so on, are typically hydrogenated and then formulated with appropriate additives.

For more than two decades, Chevron Phillips Chemical has been a leader in the development and production of PAOs. Our original products, which are produced from 1-decene, consist of PAOs 2, 4, 6 and 8cSt and C₁₀ dimer. In the mid-1990s, Chevron Phillips Chemical developed unique PAO products, which are synthesized from 1-dodecene. They are PAOs 2.5, 5, 7 and 9cSt as well as the C₁₂ dimer.

Now our comprehensive range of PAOs provides our customers with a greater range of physical properties from which to choose, giving them more flexibility and versatility in developing products better suited to their individual applications. For more information on Chevron Phillips Chemical's PAOs, visit our PAO website.

Performance Problem Solvers

PAOs are traditionally known and used for their "problem-solving" abilities. That's because polyalphaolefins are impurity-free and contain only well-defined hydrocarbon molecules with specific performance properties.

Polyol Esters

Normal alpha olefins yield odd-numbered acids upon hydroformylation followed by oxidation. Polyol esters are then prepared by reacting the acids with polyols such as pentaerythritol. A key feature of these esters is their outstanding tolerance of a wide range of temperatures. This is one reason that they are used as the base fluids for jet engine lubricants and refrigeration compressor oils for the new HFC-134a chlorine-free refrigerants.

Alkyl Aromatics

Phenol or benzene can be alkylated with normal alpha olefins to produce phenates or dialkyl benzenes. Phenates (alkyl phenol salts) are used successfully for lubricant additives. Dialkylbenzenes perform well as synthetic fluids and lubricants.