Process Oil, Process For Production Of Deasphalted Oil, Process For Production Of Extract, And Process For Production Of Process Oil

PATENT
Process Oil, Process For Production Of Deasphalted Oil, Process For Production Of Extract, And Process For Production Of Process Oil
Inventors:
Meishi TANAKA, Masashi NAKAMURA, Kazuhiro TESHIMA, Akihito ABE, Masami TAKASAKI
Original Assignee: IDEMITSU KOSAN CO., LTD.
Application number: 13/095,936
Publication number: US 2011/0198264 A1
Filing date: Apr 28, 2011
TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention is related to a process oil that is added to a natural rubber or a synthetic rubber to manufacture a rubber composition, manufacturing methods of a deasphalted oil and an extract as raw materials for manufacturing the process oil, and a manufacturing method of the process oil.

BACKGROUND ART

[0003] A process oil is typically added to a rubber material used for manufacturing a tire in order to enhance mechanical performances and processability of the rubber material. The process oil is used as: a constituent of a plasticizer for a themioplastic resin; a constituent of a printing ink; and a lubricant or a solvent component used for a softener or the like for a recycled asphalt, as well as being used with rubber materials such as a natural rubber and a synthetic rubber. [0004] For a process oil used as an additive for the rubber materials, there has been conventionally employed an extract that is a by-product produced in manufacturing a paraffinic base oil by solvent refining. However, due to a carcinogenicity problem, noncarcinogenic aromatic oils for tires have been being manufactured by various manufacturing methods. [0005] In manufacturing a rubber for a tire, since compatibility of the process oil and the rubber material is regarded as important, an aromatic component of the process oil is an important factor. However, since excessive dependency on the aromatic component leads to increase of the carcinogenicity of the process oil, the aromatic oil as a source of the carcinogenicity has to be removed while maintaining the compatibility of the process oil and the rubber material in a proper state.

[0006] Furthennore, a hazardous effect of polycyclic aromatics (PCA; same meaning as PAH (PolyAromatic Hydrocarbon)) contained in the process oil has been acknowledged as a problem in recent years. Especially, since the process oil used for an automobile tire pollutes the enviromnent via dusts of the tire, there has been a demand for reducing the PCA contained in the process oil. In Europe or other areas, a mineral oil having a PCA content of 3 mass % or more is restricted in handling. However, since an extracted oil with high aromatics content obtained by conventional manufacturing methods contains high contents of the polycyclic aromatics, it has been urgently required to develop a process oil with reduced PCA (specifically, less than 3 mass %) and a manufacturing method thereof .

[0007] With such background, there has been studied a technology for manufacturing a process oil with reduced PCA content and capable of balancing the compatibility with a rubber material and non-carcinogenicity. For example, a technology related to a manufacturing method of a process oil for a tire rubber has been disclosed, in which a naphthenic asphaltene and a solvent-extracted oil are combined (see, for instance, Patent Document 1). As another technology, there has been disclosed a manufacturing method of a process oil using an extract obtained by solvent-extracting a deasphalted oil (see, for instance, Patent Document 2 and Patent Document 3).

[0008] [Patent Document 1] JP-A-11-80434

[0009] [Patent Document 2] JP-A-2000-80208

[0010] [Patent Document 3] JP-A-2002-3861

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0011] However, while the process oil obtained by the technology disclosed in the Patent Document 1 ensures safety, a rubber composition containing the process oil did not exhibit perfonnances equal to rubber compositions containing conventional aromatic oils. In process oils obtained by the technologies disclosed in the Patent Documents 2 and 3, since the deasphalted oil of a paraffinic residual oil is used as it is, the pour point thereof is high, which undesirably causes a wax component to be separated out on a surface of a rubber in a rubber composition using the process oil.

[0012] In addition, in the technologies disclosed in the Documents 2 and 3, the extract obtained by solvent-extracting the deasphalted oil is used in manufacturing the process oils. However, since the extract contains high content of an aromatic component, further processing such as extraction and hydrogenation are required to control the content of the aromatic component to be less than a regulation value, thus requiring many manufacturing steps.

[0013] An object of the present invention is to provide a process oil exhibiting perfonnances equal to conventional aromatic oils while being noncarcinogenic and excellent in safety, as well as providing a simpler manufacturing method of the process oil.Another object of the present invention is to provide manufacturing methods of a deasphalted oil and an extract as raw materials that are favorably used in manufacturing the process oil.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0014] In order to solve the problem described above, a process oil according to a first aspect of the present invention uses as a raw material a deasphalted oil obtained by deasphalting a vacuum residual oil of a crude oil, the process oil having properties of (a) to (f) below:

[0015] (a) a polycyclic aromatics (PCA) content of less

than 3 mass %;

[0016] (b) a viscosity (100° C.) of40 to 70 mm2/s;

[0017] (c) an aniline point of 85 to 100° C.;

[0018] (d) a flash point of 250° C. or higher;

[0019] (e) an aromatic hydrocarbon content of 40 to 55

mass %; and

[0020] (f) a polar substance content of 10 to 15 mass %. [0021] According to the aspect of the present invention, the process oil uses as the raw material the deasphalted oil obtained by deasphalting the vacuum residual oil of the crude oil. With the PCA content being less than 3 mass %, the process oil is noncarcinogenic and excellent in safety. In addition, with the properties of (b) to (f), the process oil can maintain performances equal to conventional aromatic oils, so that a rubber composition made by adding the process oil to a natural rubber or a synthetic rubber will have preferable rubber properties, while being capable of preventing bleeding with the oil bleeding on a surface of a rubber and separation of a wax component. [0022] Here, the process oil of the present invention uses the deasphalted oil as the raw material, which may be: a deasphalted oil; any one of oil components made of a deasphalted oil as a raw material such as a dewaxed oil (a dewaxed deasphalted oil) obtained by dewaxing the deasphalted oil and an extract extracted from the dewaxed oil; and a mixture of two or more of the oil components above. [0023] The process oil of the present invention preferably has (g) pour point of 40° C. or lower. By setting the range of the pour point, the wax component is not separated out on the surface of a rubber to be manufactured, thus improving appearance and commercial value. [0024] The process oil according to the aspect of the present invention preferably shows an ASTM color phase of 8.0 or lower when being diluted with a toluene of sixty times as large volume as the process oil [0025] Since the process oil of the present invention contains small content of an asphaltene component, when used for manufacturing of a colored asphalt, the asphalt will be finished with a good color. [0026] By adjusting the process oil of the present invention to have (h) aniline point of 85 to 95° C., the PCA content becomes appropriate and the compatibility with a rubber material is improved, resulting in exhibiting the above described effects more effectively. [0027] A process oil according to a second aspect of the present invention is obtained by mixing: an extract obtained by deasphalting and solvent-extracting a vacuum residual oil of a crude oil; and a lubricant base oil having a polycyclic aromatics (PCA) content of less than 3 mass %, the process oil having properties of: (a) and (i) to (n) below
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