ABSTRACT
Wax is a compound which finds its applications in both industrial appliances as well as for domestic consumption. This chapter is included in this book because most of crude oils have been found to have good wax potential; these waxes are called ‘wax from mineral oil source’, but a good quality and concentration of waxes have been found in various vegetable and animal sources to extract the same from which it does not require all physical separation processes as required to produce wax from mineral oil sources, instead, simple purification processes are required to be followed. Waxes basically are of two types, viz. paraffin wax (one example - candle) and micro-crystalline waxes, i.e. MCW (best example - cosmetic industry); the chapter covers these in detail. While lube base oils/lubricant/greases have international standards and specifications, wax marketing is dominated by brands of the major marketing companies; however, many countries have set out their national specifications for the wax industries; the chapter covers this in detail. Also, physical separation processes for production of wax have been discussed in detail here. Unlike lube oils, wax production industries are also found commercially viable by small scale industries because some feedstocks like crude oil tank bottoms, slack wax (having high oil content and not suitable for use as wax), etc. are not found in abundance to be used by large scale industries as feedstock. Hence, there have been developed various alternatives within the physical separation processes to adopt the same by small scale industries which have been discussed in detail in this chapter.
