MSDW ™ / MAXSAT ™ / MWI™ catalysts

Proven performance - fantastic possibilities

ExxonMobil is the leading provider of

advanced lubes manufacturing technologies
for the 21st century that meet and exceed
customer expectations for quality and
profitability.

Our advanced hydroprocessing technologies provide today’s base

stock manufacturers with maximum value through exceptional process
performance for yield, run length and durability and outstanding
product qualities.

MSDW™ / MAXSAT ™ / MWI™

The turn of the century marked a remarkable turning point in the lubes
basestock manufacturing industry — no significant API Group I capacity has
been added worldwide since then. In fact, Group I capacity has been steadily
shut in. Conversely, Group II and Group III manufacturing capacity has
been added, satisfying a slowly but steadily growing capacity demand now
approaching 800 kBd. In both North America and Europe, the number of
plants producing lube basestocks is now about a third of what it was in the
early ’70s, but the average size of the plants increased by threefold.

Two key reasons may be attributed to this evolution. The first is the increase
in overall basestock quality spurred by the automotive and transportation
industry in its quest for higher fuel economy and lower overall emissions.
The second is the emergence since the mid ’90s of more advanced
hydroprocessing routes to the production of lubricant basestocks,
especially for engine oil lubrication applications.
Figure 1: API base oil classification reflects chemical composition

Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4

80 < VI < 120 80 < VI < 120 VI > 120 PAOs

% sat < 90% % sat > 90% % sat > 90% PIOs
% S > 0.03 % S < 0.03 % S < 0.03

1 and 2-R Aromatics Single

Naphthenes lso-paraffins
Naphthenes Component
lso-paraffins
Polar Compounds n-paraffins
lso-paraffins
n-paraffins Group 5

Very wide SYNTHETIC

Chemical Spectrum Esters

Blocked/broad-cut operation configuration. This scheme is typical of a lubes hydrocracker,

A typical configuration of a modern, all-catalytic plant is
depicted in Figure 2. The Hydrocracker and the MSDW™/
MAXSAT™ unit are operated in three modes, or “blocks”: a
Light, a Heavy, and a DAO/ Bright Stock block. Each block
produces one main basestock product and may produce one
or more additional lube products depending on the specific
where the hydrocracker operation is adjusted primarily to
maximize lube production. There are also “hybrid” schemes,
for example, where the hydrocracker is operated on a wide
VGO cut feed, primarily for fuels production, with the MSDW
unit operated either on a wide-cut UCO (UnConverted Oil) or
fractionated UCO cuts.

Figure 2: Typical configuration of a all-catalytic plant

Distillate/DAO

Solvent Extraction Solvent Dewaxing Hydrofinishing Group I

MLDW™ Unit Hydrofinishing Group I

Solvent Dewaxing Hydrofinishing Group II

RHC™ Unit
MSDW™ Unit MAXSAT™ Unit Group II / III
Distillate/DAO

Gasoline Vacuum Distillation Solvent Dewax Group II

Hydrocracking
& Diesel

HC Bottoms
MSDW™ Unit MAXSAT™ Unit Group II / III
Slack Wax
FT Wax

Hydrocracking MWI™ Unit MAXSAT™ Unit Group II / III+

However, the technology flexibility is such that a refiner can fractionated at the very end of the process. Each of the
choose to operate the entire train by processing one single, two configurations has advantages and disadvantages, as
wider-cut feed. This is commonly referred to as “broad summarized in the tables below:
cut” operation, where all the desired lube basestocks are
Table 1: Blocked operation Table 2: Broad-cut operation

PROS
PROS CONS
CONS PROS
PROS CONS
CONS
AllAll
products
products
mademadeto to Requires
Requires
stock
stock
switching;
switching; Limited
Limited
grade
grade
fixes
fixes
opsops
chosen
chosenspecification
specification more
more
complex
complexoperation
operation Single
Single
feed;
feed;
simple
simple
opsops and
and
sets
sets
plant
plant
size
size

Much
Muchlower
lower
total
total
lube
lube
Higher
Higher
overall
overall
lube
lube
recovery
recovery Intermediate
Intermediate
tankage
tankage
needed
needed NoNo
stock
stock
switching
switching recovery
recoverywith
with
VI VI
giveaway
giveaway

Control
Control
VDUVDU
cuts
cuts
upstream
upstream
Smaller
Smaller
process
process
vessel
vessel
sizes
sizes NoNo
intermediate
intermediate
tankage
tankage Larger
Larger
process
process
vessels
vessels
to to
make
make
product
product
viscosity
viscosity

Blocked
Blocked
pro:
pro:
Lube
Lube
product
product
slate
slate
based
based
onon
market
market
demand.
demand.
Blocked con:
Blocked Higher
con: investment
Higher cost.
investment cost.

MSDW™ / MAXSAT ™ technology advantage

High-performance catalytic isomerization dewaxing is the preferred route for the production of the high-quality engine oil
basestocks demanded by today’s vehicles. MSDW/MAXSAT is EMRE’s premier lube catalytic dewaxing and hydrofinishing
technology. A typical process configuration is a two-reactor system. The first reactor primarily transforms the linear paraffins (wax)
into high-quality lube products (isoparaffins) and accomplishes some saturation of the aromatic compounds. The second reactor
deeply saturates aromatics to impart outstanding color and stability.

A typical size MSDW/MAXSAT unit is between 10 and 20 kBd. This proven technology is capable of processing a very wide
range of feedstocks, varying from hydrotreated or hydrocracked VGOs and DAOs to hydrotreated raffinates and slack waxes.
Typical products are basestocks in the API Group II to III+ range, with viscosity grades as low as 2 and as high as 25 cSt at 100°C,
depending on the feed.

Figure 3: History of UOP’s hydrocracking & EMRE’s hydroisomerization process

)
g cal
r a ckin Uno
nic P&
P U UO RE
UO cess ( & EM ce
Pro P n
UO er allia
e n t
)
on™ ing
U nib crack
C ro
O P H s (hyd rle
U ces ma
Pro A lbe
P& nce

ess ng)
UO er allia
ent se nt
P
on™ dro
roc racki
c Pre
nib nd hy
U
0
200
DC ga
P H atin
UO rotre
d s
(hy ces
Pro 0
199
a x
om
O P Is
U
0
198
0
197
e ss
m ax g Proc
o n
PL cki
UO rocra
0
196
Hy d s
roces
™P
DW ess
950 E ML axing P roc
R
1 EM e dew
l( ub M
W™
SD rizatio
n)
ess )
RE me roc ation
™ EM roiso T ™ ation) P iz
ING d S A r I ™ e r
FIN lube) (hy AX satu MW om
R O E M (lube RE ydrois
YD and R
EM cess E M
xh
R E H (wax (wa
EM cess Pro
Pro
The catalyst makes all the difference
At the heart of the process is a system of proprietary shape-
selective catalysts containing zeolites and small amounts
of noble metals. They are specifically designed to isomerize
n-paraffins and saturate aromatics with maximum selectivity to
lubes and minimal cracking to fuels.
These catalysts, manufactured at our own facilities, display
superior activity and selectivity and unsurpassed tolerance to
nitrogen, sulfur, and aromatic contaminants in the feed. Even a
temporary degradation in feed quality, which might irreversibly
poison other catalysts, will require only a temporary increase
in operating temperature with minimal impact on aging and
virtually no impact on product yield.
In fact, to date none of the more than 20 commercial units
operating with MSDW™ catalyst has changed the catalyst fill
due to aging, poor performance due to feed contamination,
refinery upsets or reaching end of cycle. Two of the units
have operated for more than 12 years, with one still using the
original catalyst fill.

Figure 4: Process

WAX MOLECULE ISOPARAFFIN MOLECULE

(~180 VI; +35ºC pour pt) (~150 VI; -18ºC pour pt)

BULKY OIL MOLECULE UNCHANGED BULKY OIL MOLECULE

(~100 VI; -18ºC pour pt) (~100 VI; -18ºC pour pt)

large oil molecule

cannot enter zeolite pore

Performance you can trust Energy lives here

• Yield and selectivity In today’s world, standing still corresponds to stepping
• Activity and run length backward. At EMRE we have active R&D to continue to boost
• Robustness and durability yield, further improve tolerance to heteroatom contaminants,
and broaden the range of acceptable feedstocks. We are now
Exceptional product quality on our third generation of the MSDW catalyst system, with
• Low temperature properties better activity, selectivity and polar tolerance than the original
• Stability catalyst we used in our first deployment in 1997.
• Water white color
Activity Yield S/N Tolerance
To put the true value of the yield advantage of the MSDW™ 1st gen Basic Basic Basic
catalyst system in context, consider this: for an average MSDW 2nd gen + ++ +
unit, at current product prices, a difference of one percent in 3rd gen ++ ++ ++
yield of basestock product is worth between $2 million and $4
million per year over producing diesel fuel, or about $7 million Figure 5: ExxonMobil selective dewaxing HDW catalyst aging
to $8 million per year in revenues. with more advanced catalysts
40

Maximizing basestock product yield is obviously important. 30

150N, 500N
But when you operate an MSDW unit, even the by-product 20
Group II 2nd Generation

is valuable. This is because the majority of the conversion

Delta Temperature, ºC

10
product from the MSDW catalyst system is diesel fuel 150N, 500N
0
with essentially no sulfur, an excellent cetane number, and Group II+
3rd Generation
-10
outstanding low-temperature properties. This product is often
-20
blended with other distillates to actually increase the quality of 100N, 150N
Group III
the diesel pool or supplement sources of arctic-grade diesel! -30 3rd Generation

-40

Time on Stream (Years)

ExxonMobil advantages
ExxonMobil, its heritage companies Exxon and Mobil, and its affiliates worldwide have literally generations of experience in lubes
manufacturing. ExxonMobil operated and often pioneered the development of lube basestock manufacturing throughout the world.

• Mobil’s MLDW™ catalytic dewaxing technology using ZSM-5 zeolite-based catalyst was deployed in 1979 at the Adelaide,
Australia Refinery.
• MSDW™ technology was commercialized at the Jurong Refinery in Singapore in 1997.
• Raffinate HydroConversion (RHC) was commercialized in Exxon’s Baytown Refinery in 1999.
• MWI™ (Mobil Wax Isomerization) was deployed at the Fawley, UK Refinery in 2003.
Distillate/DAO

Solvent Extraction Solvent Dewaxing Hydrofinishing Group I

MLDW™ Unit Hydrofinishing Group I

Solvent Dewaxing Hydrofinishing Group II

RHC™ Unit
MSDW™ Unit MAXSAT™ Unit Group II / III
Distillate/DAO

Gasoline Vacuum Distillation Solvent Dewax Group II

Hydrocracking
& Diesel

HC Bottoms
MSDW™ Unit MAXSAT™ Unit Group II / III
Slack Wax
FT Wax

Hydrocracking MWI™ Unit MAXSAT™ Unit Group II / III+

Fuel Gas

Reactors
Amine & Water
HDW HDF Scrubbers

Heater
Low-Temp Fuel Gas
Flash
Wild
Naphtha

Vac.

High-Temp Stm
Flash
H/P
Stripper

Vac. Stripper
Waxy Oil
Charge Stm
Recycle
Compressor Makeup
Hydrogen Vac.

Vac. Dryer
Lube

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