Medical liquid paraffin

The application scope of paraffin wax that everyone is familiar with is generally in the chemical industry. In fact, liquid paraffin is also widely used in some medical industries. Liquid paraffin, also known as white oil or paraffin oil. Because liquid paraffin cannot be absorbed by the human body, medical liquid paraffin is often used as a lubricating laxative. Especially for patients with constipation, medical liquid paraffin has a good therapeutic effect.

Chemical structure: This product is a mixture of refined liquid hydrocarbons obtained from petroleum, mainly a mixture of saturated cycloalkanes and chain alkanes. It is obtained by normal pressure and vacuum distillation of crude oil, solvent extraction and dewaxing, and hydrogenation refining.

Mineral oil usually refers to crude oil (or petroleum) that has been mined and initially processed. Petroleum is a natural mineral product buried underground. Unrefined petroleum that has been explored and mined is also called crude oil. At room temperature, the finished products of crude oil after refining are called petroleum products. According to custom, the base oil extracted from petroleum by physical distillation is called mineral oil base oil. The refining process is mainly to separate crude oil into different parts to obtain the desired products. The main separation process includes the separation of crude oil into crude gasoline, crude kerosene, crude diesel, heavy diesel, various lubricating oil fractions, distillation separation of cracked raw oil and residual oil (also known as residual oil) and separation of solvents used for purification of various lubricating oils. The production process is basically based on physical processes, and the hydrocarbon structure is not changed. The base oil produced depends on the content and properties of the ideal components in the raw materials. Since the impurities contained in mineral oil cannot be completely removed during the refining process, the resulting base oil has a high flow point and is not suitable for cold zone operations. Therefore, the properties of mineral oil base oils are subject to certain restrictions.

On October 27, 2017, the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer published a preliminary list of carcinogens for reference. Untreated or lightly treated mineral oil is on the list of Class 1 carcinogens, and mineral oil, highly refined is on the list of Class 3 carcinogens.

Refining method

It is obtained by taking the light lubricating oil fraction at 250-400℃ from crude oil and going through processes such as acid and alkali refining, water washing, drying, white clay adsorption, and adding antioxidants. When using paraffin-based crude oil, dewaxing is also required. In order to lower the freezing point of insulating oil, an appropriate amount of pour point depressant can be added. By taking different fractions of crude oil and controlling the concentration, dosage, action time and other related processes of sulfuric acid during refining, transformer oil, capacitor oil, cable oil, switch oil, etc. with different uses can be obtained. Solvent refining or solvent refining combined with hydrogenation refining can also be used instead of acid-base refining. Mineral oil should be refined to an appropriate depth. Insufficient refining cannot remove harmful impurities in the oil; while over-refining will remove too much natural antioxidants and aromatic hydrocarbon components contained in the oil, reducing its stability and breathability, which is particularly effective for cable oil and capacitor oil. In order to improve the arc extinguishing ability of switch oil, the aromatic hydrocarbon content in the oil should be reduced as much as possible.

harm

Mineral oil is not absorbed or digested in the human intestine and can hinder the absorption of water. It is used medically as a lubricating laxative to treat constipation in the elderly or children. Excessive intake can cause soft stools and diarrhea; long-term intake can lead to gastrointestinal disorders and affect the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins A, D, K and calcium, phosphorus, etc. It is extremely harmful to the human body. It will take out all the fat-soluble vitamins in the human body, making them unable to be absorbed by the body. Edible mineral oil will cause serious deficiency of vitamins A, D, E, and K in the human body, and produce a series of diseases.