Published August 2003
A white oil is a highly refined straight mineral oil fraction with major end-use markets in polymers (e.g. internal or external lubricants), personal care (e.g. baby oils, creams and suntan lotions), pharmaceutical (e.g. laxatives), and food applications (e.g. bakery pan oils). In this review, we evaluate the feedstocks, process technologies, and catalysts for white mineral oil production. We also evaluate BASF s white oil production process a two-stage hydrogenation approach to the production of technical-grade and medical-grade white oils which is being licensed by Uhde Edeleanu. The total fixed capital for a plant co-producing 220 million lb/yr (100,000 t/yr) technical-grade and 44 million lb/yr (20,000 t/yr) medical-grade white oils is estimated at $31.2 million. The capital investments by section are also estimated for technical-grade and for medical-grade white oil production.
