Our team of experts answer the most frequently asked questions. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us if you have any questions!
Tom Malinski, Ph.D., CLS
Americas PAO Business Development and Technical Services Manager
Chevron Phillips Chemical
Michel Sanchez-Rivas
EMEA/Asia PAO Business Development and Technical Services Manager
Chevron Phillips Chemical
Watch Four Reasons Synthetic Oil is Better with CPChem Experts and The Motor Oil Geek
Synfluid® PAOs are crafted from an on-purpose process that yields a consistent, high-quality product — an advantage clearly demonstrated by gas chromatography.
Refined mineral oils often contain sulfurs, aromatics, and other compounds that can erode the quality and consistency of a mineral oil. These compounds are not discernible in Synfluid® PAOs.
Synfluid® PAOs feature narrow molecular weight ranges due to high-purity feedstocks. This minimizes high molecular weight compounds that impair low-temperature performance (pour point, cold crank, and other low-temperature viscometrics) and low molecular weight compounds that affect volatility, flash, and fire points.
With fuel economy more critical than ever, even a 1% gain can significantly reduce costs. Choosing the right base oil is key to balancing fuel efficiency and wear protection. Low-viscosity oils improve fuel economy, but only if low Noack volatility is maintained to ensure emissions control and lubricant stability.
The chart shows that PAOs enable low-viscosity formulations without sacrificing volatility. As OEMs adopt lower-viscosity oils to improve fuel economy—even for heavy-duty diesel engines—using high-quality base oils becomes essential for optimal performance.
Having a high viscosity index helps to protect an engine at temperature extremes. A high VI means that the oil does not change as much with temperature compared to an oil with a lower VI. A higher VI oil has a lower viscosity at start-up temperatures, allowing it to flow faster and lubricate equipment while maintaining the needed viscosity at running temperatures to continue providing protection.
However, VI doesn’t tell the whole story — it only reflects the viscosity/temperature relationship between 40°C and 100°C. But what happens below 40°C?
Two lubricants with the same VI may perform dramatically differently at low temperatures. Note the differences between a VHVI mineral oil and Synfluid® Polyalphaolefin (PAO) 5 in the Scanning Brookfield chart.
Oils made with PAOs demonstrate an inherently high viscosity index and maintain excellent low-temperature performance compared with mineral oils. While viscosity improvers can enhance VI in finished formulations, they can break down over time, resulting in diminished performance. PAOs are chosen as lubricant base stocks for their ability to enhance performance and solve formulation challenges.
Oxidative stability is a critical property enabling oils to resist sludge formation and degradation while in service. PAO-based lubricants offer a significant advantage in oxidative stability. The RPVOT is a strong predictor of how base oils will perform in many automotive and industrial applications. The chart below highlights the oxidative stability of Synfluid® PAOs compared to mineral oils in the RPVOT test (ASTM D2272).
PAOs also resist viscosity increases upon oxidation, which is important in Sequence IIIH and VW T4 engine tests. These combined benefits provide the properties required for severe service applications and extended drain intervals.
The advantages offered in oxidative stability, coupled with superior volatility and low-temperature viscometrics, clearly demonstrate that Synfluid® PAOs are the highest-quality base oils available in the industry.
Group III mineral oils and Group IV PAOs are not of the same quality. This table lists the differences:
| Property | Group III Mineral Oils | Group IV PAOs |
|---|---|---|
| Feedstock | Derived from various crude oil feedstocks | Synthesized from pure alpha olefins |
| Processing | Multiple refining technologies (e.g., hydrocracking, isodewaxing) | Uniform chemical synthesis process |
| Viscosity Index (VI) | Can approach PAO levels | Naturally high and consistent |
| Low-Temperature Performance | Acceptable for some applications only when inhibited with expensive PPDs | Excellent and predictable |
| Purity & Consistency | Varies due to feedstock and process | High purity and consistent molecular structure |
| Application Reliability | May vary between batches | Reliable across applications |
The uniquely beneficial quality of PAOs has been demonstrated in a series of European engine tests. Three stringent test standards required by Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz engines show the impact of the variability of Group III oils:
| Group III A | Group III B | Group III C | PAO | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VW T4 | Pass | Pass | Fail | Pass |
| TDI | Pass | Fail | Pass | Pass |
| M111 FE | Pass | Pass | Fail | Pass |
This data illustrates lot-to-lot variability, which has been recognized for the Group III oils.
With today’s oils requiring a higher-quality lubricant base stock to meet more stringent tests, polyalphaolefins are perfectly tailored and consistently manufactured to meet the challenge.
Rotary screw compressor oils formulated with PAO offer performance benefits not obtainable with a mineral-oil-based formulation. Synfluid® PAOs provide outstanding improvements in oxidation stability, volatility, water separability, and viscometrics, greatly improving oil and hardware longevity.
PAO (Polyalphaolefin)-based oils deliver superior performance in rotary screw compressors through a combination of advanced properties:
Grease is a solid to semi-fluid lubricant, typically used for “difficult to service” equipment such as bearings or suspension systems. When combined with “difficult operating conditions” — including extreme temperatures, high loads, or extended operations — a high-quality base oil may be necessary.
Low-temperature fluidity and high-temperature thermal and oxidative stability are key factors when choosing a PAO. This is especially true when considering the entire operating temperature range, including startup conditions.
The qualitative chart below describes the impact of each grease component on certain performance characteristics:
| PAO Base Oil | Additive | Thickener | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thermal Stability | + | + | |
| Volatility | ++ | ||
| Oxidative Stability | + | + | |
| Low Temperature Flow | + | + | |
| Solvency | + | ||
| NLGI Grade | ++ | ||
| Fuel Economy | + | + | |
| Antiwear | ++ | ||
| Water Resistance | + | + |
Clearly, the base oil dominates some grease properties, while the additives or thickener drive others. One example is the advantage PAO has over mineral oil in the area of high-temperature stability. PAO-based greases are typically used at temperatures over 100 °C because of thermal and oxidative concerns. Each 10 °C temperature rise can reduce oxidative stability by half. Therefore, at high temperatures, it is advantageous to utilize a more stable base oil — specifically, Synfluid® PAO.
Because PAOs have a diverse, highly branched isoparaffin structure, they provide excellent low-temperature viscometrics and very low pour points (ppt) without the need to add Pour Point Depressants (PPDs).
For example, Synfluid® PAO 4 cSt has a pour point of −73 °C and a 40 °C viscosity of 2,380 cSt, making a PPD unnecessary.
While adding a PPD can reduce the pour point of a mineral oil, it still will not achieve the superior performance of a PAO.
Our C10-based PAOs are:
Our C12-based PAOs are:
Since C12-based PAOs use 1-dodecene as a monomer, the oligomers that form the PAO are in multiples of 12 carbon atoms. This means that the lightest component present in the C12-based PAOs is slightly heavier than what is present in C10-based PAOs. This slight change leads to big differences in the volatility properties of the C12-based PAOs, including higher flash points and lower Noack volatilities. Additionally, the VI of C12-based PAOs is higher than that of the C10-based PAOs.
With all of those improvements in properties—while still much lower than mineral oils—the C12-based PAOs do have a slightly higher pour point compared to C10-based PAOs at the same viscosity. This doesn’t tell the whole story, however. When looking at cold-temperature properties like CCSV, you can see that the C12-based PAOs have a similar or even slightly lower viscosity compared to C10-based PAOs that have the same KV100.
CPChem’s proprietary manufacturing process and monomer selection combine to produce the groundbreaking performance characteristics that our customers expect from Synfluid® polyalphaolefins. The table shows how our Synfluid® mPAOs offer significant advantages in pour point and viscosity index over conventional high-viscosity PAOs.
In addition, Synfluid® mPAOs have a significant reduction in the traction coefficient as compared to conventional high-viscosity PAOs.
Our Synfluid® mPAO is based on a single monomer, AlphaPlus® 1-Octene. The relative availability of the 1-octene olefin monomer helps alleviate supply constraints possible with other monomers.
Tiny bubbles can cause major issues, such as shorter lubricant life, increased fluid compressibility, lower fluid viscosity, and cavitation. However, unlike foaming, entrained air can be a difficult problem to treat with additives.
Synfluid® metallocene polyalphaolefins (mPAOs) not only have low foaming characteristics, but they also exhibit rapid air release when compared to traditional high-viscosity PAOs. The plot shows a comparison of the air release times exhibited by ISO VG 320 blends made with high-viscosity PAOs. The plot shows Synfluid® mPAO 100 cSt exhibits faster air release time compared to traditional PAO 100.
Air is usually a poor lubricant, so your frustration is understandable! The combination of air and oil can often lead to foaming issues. Getting the air to release from the lubricant is vital to allowing the lubricant to do its job.
The chart below shows a comparison of the foaming characteristics of our Synfluid® mPAO high-viscosity base oils with traditional high-viscosity PAO 40 and 100 cSt base oils. Both the foam tendency (the initial amount of foam generated in this test) and the time required for the foam to collapse are remarkably better for Synfluid® mPAO.
There are a variety of ways that Synfluid® PAOs reduce the operating temperature of equipment. Friction is known to generate heat and reduce the energy efficiency of equipment. PAOs are renowned for their lubricity and their ability to reduce the friction caused by moving equipment. Once heat is generated, the excellent thermal properties of PAOs — like their high specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity — allow them to absorb and transfer heat away from equipment more efficiently compared to mineral oils.
Heat is generally the enemy for most oils. Oil degradation is a function of time and temperature, so operating at a lower temperature will allow the fluid to last longer. This is generally governed by the rule of thumb that for every 10 °C increase, chemical reactions double in rate. Therefore, if there is a reduction of 10 °C, then the fluid should last approximately twice as long.
YES! And they do — PAOs have been used in this application with computers for over 40 years. PAOs are dielectric fluids, meaning they do not conduct electricity well. It is simply the nature of this material.
This is an application where Synfluid® PAOs excel as the foundation for your formulation. Synfluid® PAOs are carefully designed synthetic base oils with excellent heat transfer, viscosity, and dielectric properties, as well as stability over a wide range of temperatures.
Synfluid® PAOs can be used in a myriad of applications, including EV battery coolants, military dielectric coolants, immersion coolants, transformer fluids, and heat transfer fluids — just to name a few!
