Process for separating wax from mixture of wax and oil or wax, oil and solvent.

摘要

A process for oil-wax separation comprises passing the oil and wax mixture or a slurry thereof with a solvent first to a filtration zone (10) and thereafter to a centrifugation zone (20). The filtration zone produces a wax cake product, which may be reslurried with solvent prior to being centrifuged, and a relatively wax-free filtrate product. The centrifugation zone (20) produces a relatively wax-free liquid which preferably is recycled (24), at least in part, to the filtration zone (10) and a dry wax cake product (26 or 52) having a relatively low solvent and oil content. A preferred centrifugation zone (20) comprises a scroll decanter centrifuge. The disclosed process produces a relatively dry wax cake product and an increased dewaxed oil yield resulting from the reduced amount of oil entrained in the wax cake product. The process also reduces the energy consumption associated with wax recovery by decreasing the amount of solvent entrained in the wax cake.