what is synthetic oil made from?

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someone tryed telling me yesterday that synthetic oil is made from vegatable oil. ha ha i just laughed.

i got to thinking thought. what is synthetic made from? what are the 'base stocks'
 
Crude oil and natural gas. Naptha and ethylene are the intermediates from which PAO synthesis generally takes place.
 
Esters can be synthesised from vegetables, can't they? I doubt you'd find any motor oil with vegtable based esters in it though, unless you had some special need for a food grade lube.
 
quote:

Originally posted by 55:
Esters can be synthesised from vegetables, can't they? I doubt you'd find any motor oil with vegtable based esters in it though, unless you had some special need for a food grade lube.

I believe there are several ways to make esters. Check the following:

http://www.hatcocorporation.com/pages/about_esters.html#Polyol esters

quote:

The term "polyol esters" is short for neopentyl polyol esters which are made by reacting monobasic fatty acids with polyhedric alcohols having a "neopentyl" structure.

I believe the source fatty acid could be either animal or vegetable fats.
 
There are vegetable oil based motor oils available. Having spent 10 years of my life making paint resins out of vegetable oil, no such concoction will ever go in any engine I own. Without vast quantities of additives, unsaturated oils polymerize. If you do a search, you should be able to find more of my ranting about it.

The original ester motor oil was castor oil. It is saturated and less likely to polymerize without modern additives.

Note, there are other polyols available to make esters besides neopentyl glycol. You can also esterify alcohols with polybasic acids to form esters. I think both are used in motor oils.
 
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