Kunlun Lubricant's Dalian R&D Center Achieves New Breakthrough in Marine Oil Research

On March 4, 2010, the project Research on a Dedicated Additive Package for the BOB Process and an Economical Cylinder Oil Formulation, undertaken by the Dalian Lubricant R&D Center, successfully passed company project acceptance. PetroChina Kunlun marine cylinder oil had already passed WARTSILA and MAN B&W technical certification in 2008, obtaining a passport to the international market, joining the ranks of international marine oil brands and reaching a leading domestic level. However, due to quality and supply issues with domestic ultra-high-base-number detergents, the treat rate of the Kunlun marine cylinder oil package RHY3531 was relatively high, increasing product cost and to some extent undermining the product's international competitiveness. The Dalian R&D Center cooperated with a domestic additive manufacturer to develop a new ultra-high-base-number detergent and, on that basis, developed the cylinder oil package RHY3533 with better economics. The treat rate of DCA 5070H cylinder oil blended with this package fell from 26.5 percent to 22 percent, substantially reducing the production cost of marine cylinder oil. In addition, the package has good adaptability to various base oils at home and abroad, and the products blended with it perform better than the company's certified products, reaching internationally advanced levels. The successful development of the dedicated additive package for the BOB process is another new breakthrough of this project. The BOB (Blender-on-Board system) is an on-board blending system designed and developed by Maersk that can be installed on ocean-going vessels. The system can blend marine system oil with a cylinder oil package dedicated to the BOB system through an automatic control system into marine cylinder oil with any target base number, to meet the needs of fuels with different sulfur contents. The RHY3532 package completed under this project meets Maersk's performance requirements for a cylinder oil package under the BOB process and passed MAN B&W technical certification (TBN 70). With this, PetroChina Lubricant Company has become the world's second company to possess a dedicated additive package for the BOB process, reaching internationally advanced levels. BOB is an innovation in the development of marine engine technology. On the one hand, it can accelerate the circulation and replacement of system oil, keep the crankcase clean and save the cost of disposing of used system oil. On the other hand, it can blend cylinder oil with the corresponding base number according to the fuel oil requirements of different countries and regions around the world, reducing the number of cylinder oil storage tanks, saving space on board and increasing vessel carrying capacity. Given its outstanding advantages in energy saving and environmental protection, BOB technology will certainly be applied on more ocean-going vessels. In line with the suggestion of attending expert judges that the newly developed package be put into production as soon as possible, the Dalian R&D Center will complete the related follow-up work as quickly as possible to achieve the company's goal of reducing costs and increasing efficiency for marine oils and to promote the commercialization of this product. The Dalian R&D Center will also take the establishment of the WARTSILA engine evaluation method at the group company's key laboratory as an opportunity to further strengthen marine oil research and development, contributing to the continuous improvement of Kunlun marine lubricant's international standing and brand influence.