But that abundance is drying up now. As global Group I capacity declines – supplanted by newer processes that leave the wax in the base oil instead of extracting it – the worlds wax industry is stepping up its search for alternative sources. Four experts brought fresh perspectives to the issue at the NPRA International Lubricants & Waxes Meeting in Houston in November.

Demand for wax is growing while supply has decreased, said Jose Luis Montes of Schumann/Steier. Over 750,000 metric tons per year of wax capacity have been lost worldwide since 1995, and the United States is now the worlds largest wax importer. Growth in the plastics and the board industries, particularly in developing countries, has placed a strong demand on a shrinking wax supply.

U.S. and Latin American paraffin wax prices nearly tripled from 1995 to 2008, Montes said, reaching an average of about $1,800 per ton before the recession hit. (Back in 1995, the price was down around $600/ton.) While average prices plummeted below $1,200/ton in 2009, they bounced back nearly to 2008 levels in 2010, and prices are likely to continue rising in the short to mid-term, Montes predicted.

The industry has looked to nontraditional sources in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, but those sources present quality and logistical challenges. The most common alternatives are soy, tallow and palm waxes, now used in about a third of all candle formulations. Alternatives are available, Montes concluded, but they cannot replace all the hydrocarbons.

Or can they?

Alpha Olefin Wax

Chevron Phillips Chemical Co.s Eduardo Baralt described his companys production of waxes – about 150 million pounds per year – from five different fractions of normal alpha olefins. These waxes, he said, can be used without modifications, or they can be fractionated, or they can be used as the starting material for other chemicals.

Without modification, the AO waxes can be used in the poly vinyl chloride industry as a lubricant; in cardboard and corrugated box coatings; as surface coatings; and in the candle industry, some AO waxes can be added to the blend at about 5 percent of weight, although some AO waxes require the addition of antioxidants to protect against thermal degradation. As paraffin wax extenders, Baralt said, AO wax can improve color, opacity and offer good mold-releasing properties.

Fractionation and other chemical applications greatly expand the applications of AO waxes. For example, hydrogenation will increase the drop melting point of the waxes and improve thermal and oxidative stability; isomerized waxes are used in drilling fluids; and oligomerization or polymerization produces micro-crystalline waxes with wide applications in printing ink, candles, surface polishing, plasticizers and mold-release agents.

AO waxes are reactive, and they oxidize, Baralt said, and compatibility of AO waxes with Fischer-Tropsch or natural waxes can be an issue. But, he concluded, AO waxes offer unique properties and make versatile building blocks for synthetic waxes.

Options from Corn, Canola, Cows …

The number of wax suppliers in North America has dropped from 22 to 12, said David Hess of South Chicago Packing Co. The wax market is 3 billion pounds and domestic supply is only 2 billion, so markets are looking for replacement and extender hydrocarbons.

Renewable fats and oils, and particularly hydrogenated tallow, are the natural choice, said Hess. In chemical terms, paraffin is a mix of straight chain hydrocarbons with approximately 20 to 40 carbons and triglycerides are 57 to 60 carbons, but they have six oxygen molecules as well.

Triglycerides are some 11 to 13 percent heavier than paraffin, and about three times more viscous. They have a flash point over 600 degrees F, while paraffin is 400 to 450 F. Hydrogenated tallow has a slight, characteristic odor; its opaque rather than translucent; and its stability compares to paraffins.

Looking at performance differences, Hess said triglycerides burn cooler than paraffin, set up slower and have better heat resistance and slightly lower moisture resistance.

Hydrogenated tallow extends paraffin easily at 30 to 40 percent, Hess concluded. Above that can be an issue. But billions of pounds are available, and supply is growing. Its a new supply source for the wax industry.

FT Waxes in the Pipeline?

Wax is not wax. There is an enormous variety of properties, said Tony Cook of Sasol Wax International. Not all waxes are interchangeable, he explained, but Fischer-Tropsch waxes, with their wide range of molecular weights, have at least a degree of interchangeability with high-molecular-weight polyethylene waxes as well as with petroleum waxes, alpha olefins and natural waxes.

The biggest volume growth in wax demand will mainly be in those applications that currently use petroleum waxes, he continued. And for those applications, FT waxes – that is, waxes produced using Fischer-Tropsch gas-to-liquids technology – are fully inter-changeable with petroleum waxes in many applications, and can be used in other cases by blending.

There is currently a shortage of polyethylene hard waxes, and the next decade will see rapid growth in demand in adhesives, inks, PVC lubrication and new applications. The Sasol wax expansion in Sasolburg, South Africa, will meet the shortage, and the expansion in two phases will let us match the growth of demand for hard waxes, Cook said.

Turning to medium waxes, Group I base oil plant closures will result in a significant undersupply over the next decade, he continued. The candidates to meet this shortfall are alpha olefins, natural waxes and FT medium waxes.

Alpha olefins are not expected to play a major role in meeting the shortfall, Cook asserted. And natural waxes are more complicated to use in some applications, and their pricing and availability are increasingly driven by fuels. Plus Cook questioned whether these may be competing with food production.

FT medium waxes, on the other hand, are as green as it gets, and fully interchangeable with petroleum waxes in many applications. But they require access to GTL technology. You need a world-scale GTL facility and large gas fields.

FT wax production will compete not just with liquefied natural gas, Cook said, but also with gas-to-liquids base oils. And it also requires significant infrastructure, including a global blending network.

Sasol Wax is now conducting a study for a plug-in wax production module that can be fitted to any existing or future Sasol GTL plant, said Cook. With a capacity of 250,000 tons per year, the production can be integrated with existing Sasol Wax blending plants. And the product could be implemented by the middle of this decade.

While Sasol is thinking about world-scale FT wax production, Cook concluded, there is no decision on if or where or when.