In the production of lubricant base oils, furfural refining is a crucial core process. Its purpose is to selectively separate desirable components (saturated hydrocarbons) from undesirable ones (aromatics, resins, and other impurities) in vacuum side line oil, thereby improving the base oil’s viscosity index, oxidation stability, and color stability. However, traditional furfural refining equipment is increasingly challenged by issues of efficiency and operating cost, and the industry is in urgent need of a more efficient and economical solution.

Process Principle: Why Choose Furfural?

Furfural, as a selective solvent, exhibits significantly different solubilizing abilities for different components in vacuum side line oil:

• High solubility: Exhibits extremely strong solubility for non-ideal components such as aromatics and colloids.
• Low solubility: Has very weak solubility for ideal components such as saturated hydrocarbons.

Taking advantage of this property, during the extraction process, furfural (the extract phase) extracts most of the aromatic hydrocarbons and other impurities from the raffinate phase, thereby achieving the purpose of refining and purifying the oil. After extraction, furfural is recovered and recycled through methods such as evaporation to obtain high-quality refined oil.

Equipment Revolution: Why Is the Centrifugal Extractor the Superior Choice?

Zhengzhou Tiei Extraction Technology Co., Ltd.'s centrifugal extractor, with its revolutionary working principle, perfectly overcomes the pain points of traditional extraction columns. The working principle of the CWL-M series centrifugal extractor is as follows:

• Powerful Mixing: Vacuum side line oil and furfural are pumped into a high-speed rotating drum in proportion. Within the powerful centrifugal force field and a specially designed mixing zone, they are instantly sheared and broken into extremely small droplets. The mass transfer surface area increases by orders of magnitude, enabling the extraction process to be completed efficiently within seconds.
• Rapid Separation:The mixture immediately enters the separation zone. Under centrifugal force thousands of times greater than gravity, the two phases with different densities (the raffinate rich in saturated hydrocarbons and the extract phase rich in aromatics) are clearly, thoroughly, and rapidly separated, effectively avoiding phase entrainment.
• Separate Discharge: The separated two phases are continuously and stably discharged from the equipment through their respective light and heavy phase channels, entering subsequent processing stages.

Compared to traditional extraction columns, the CWL-M centrifugal extractor offers the following advantages:

• 1.Double Efficiency: Single-stage extraction efficiency far exceeds that of traditional tray extraction, significantly reducing the number of stages required to achieve the same separation effect or increasing the processing capacity of existing equipment.
• 2.Extremely Small Footprint: A single multi-stage centrifugal extractor can replace an extraction column tens of meters high, saving significant space and infrastructure costs.
• 3.No Flooding: The centrifugal force-driven separation process fundamentally eliminates flooding, providing a wide operating window and high flexibility.
• 4.Low Solvent Loss and High Product Yield: Near-perfect separation significantly reduces furfural entrainment in the oil phase and oil loss in furfural, directly improving economic efficiency.

We have a seasoned R&D team that can provide a complete process package for your specific vacuum side line oil raw materials, from small-scale testing and pilot-scale amplification to industrial design, ensuring the reliability and economy of the technical solution.
Email: sales@tieiextraction.com
Whatsapp: +86 19069612820