Base oil catalysts
Catalyst performance is paramount in producing high-value base oils. Refiners trust catalysts from Shell Catalysts & Technologies to deliver high yields of top-quality base oils used in base oil plants across the world.
Our base oil catalysts can help deliver profitable, high-quality yields
Base oils are manufactured from vacuum gas oils and high-quality deasphalted oils. These feedstocks are improved through several processing steps, including hydrocracking or hydrotreating, dewaxing or isomerisation, and hydrofinishing. Shell Catalysts & Technologies has a proven record of delivering high yields and enhanced quality base oils through its range of high-performance catalysts for use in these key processes.
How customers use base oil catalysts to maximise yield and cycle length
Discover how Shell Catalysts & Technologies’ technical services and pilot plant tests helped a Middle Eastern national oil company to maximise yield while processing a very heavy feed, and a large Gulf Coast refinery to extend its cycle length.
Hydrocracking and hydrotreating: base oil catalysts
Base oil hydrocrackers and hydrotreaters can employ varying combinations of pretreatment catalysts using Shell Catalysts & Technologies’ CENTERA* and ASCENT* technologies in combination with selective silica–alumina-based conversion catalysts. Our hydrotreating and hydrocracking base oil catalysts include:
- LH-28, LH-29, LH-31 and LH-41: selective hydrotreating and hydrocracking catalysts for dedicated lubricant units or dual-service lubricant hydrocrackers
Hydrotreating technology
Shell Catalysts & Technologies’ hydrotreating process combines advanced process technology, high-performance catalyst systems, and efficient reactor internal designs.
Hydrocracking catalysts
Shell Catalysts & Technologies offers leading-edge hydrocracking catalysts coupled with outstanding technical service. Hydrocracking is replacing fluidised catalytic cracking as the refinery conversion process of choice.
Catalytic dewaxing and isomerisation: base oil catalysts
Catalytic dewaxing or isomerisation produces high yields of superior-quality base oils with excellent low-temperature properties.
Catalytic dewaxing using commercial Shell Catalysts & Technologies’ catalysts is the most recent technology application and lies at the heart of base oil production in the world’s largest gas-to-liquids (GTL) plant, Pearl GTL in Qatar.
Dewaxing catalysts: base oil catalysts
Shell Catalysts & Technologies’ dewaxing catalysts are in use in other installations around the world for efficiently 
dewaxing traditional base oils made from a variety of crude oils. Our base oil dewaxing catalysts include:
SLD-800:
base metal cracking–dewaxing catalyst applied in single-stage units with high sulphur and nitrogen levels
SLD-821:
noble metal isomerisation dewaxing catalyst applied in two-stage units
SLD-861:
newest generation of noble metal dewaxing catalyst
Hydrofinishing: base oil catalysts
Shell Catalysts & Technologies’ noble metal and base metal catalysts have been used for more than 50 years to produce highly saturated base oils, including medicinal white oils.
These hydrofinishing catalysts enhance colour, remove impurities such as sulphur and improve stability and additive response.
Our hydrofinishing base oil catalysts include:
- LN-6: high-activity noble metal catalyst with sulphur tolerance
- LN-8: noble metal catalyst with further enhanced activity and sulphur tolerance
- LF-30: high-activity nickel catalyst
- LF-31: improved high-activity nickel catalyst
Customised base oil catalyst solutions
Due to the distinctiveness of base oil processing, the Shell Catalysts & Technologies team can guide you through your options for the selection and application of the proper base oil catalyst for your application.
Licensed technologies
We license the lubricants unit and the upstream hydrocracker.
Technical services
Our experienced catalyst scientists and process technologists provide support to help maintain the long-term performance of a unit.
Product offtake agreements
We can facilitate product offtake agreements with Shell Lubricants and work with you to ensure that your products meet Shell’s exacting quality requirements.
Additional resources for base oil catalysts
Catalysts and technology for lubricant base oils
Learn how both new and existing operators can capitalise on the demand for Group II and III base oils.
Optimising refinery operations with collaboration and digitisation
Senior Account Executive Perry Lea discusses helping customers extract the most value from their assets and how digitisation can change process engineering.