Why is propane a preferred solvent in the deasphalting of lube oil?
Propane is used used as a liquid propane for deasphalting and it is a preffeed solvent for the purpose is because it is a very good solvent for hydrocarbon oil and it mainly rejects heavy hydrocarbons such as asphaltenes along with it, propane also rejects non hydrocarbons in the vacuum residue that are present as asphalt. In the range of 40 to 96.8 oC, high molecular weight asphaltenes as well as resins are highly insoluble. That's how it seperates the asphalt. The oil extracted is called as deasphalted oil. This extracted oil can aslo be used as a lubricating oil for making of highly viscous lubes.
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