Alkylates & paraffins
The buyer is a sulphonation plant, and a sulphonation plant is tuned to a molecule, not to a product name.
Linear alkylbenzene is not a commodity with one specification. Chain-length distribution, linearity and bromine index decide whether a parcel runs cleanly through a sulphonation unit or produces dark, high-viscosity acid that the plant has to work around. Those three numbers are the trade.
The chain
Three products, one unit, one counterparty pool.
Normal paraffins are extracted from the kerosene cut by molecular sieve. Those paraffins are dehydrogenated to olefins and alkylated with benzene to make linear alkylbenzene. Heavy alkylbenzene comes off the same unit as the heavy co-product.
Because it is one physical chain, the counterparties overlap: a producer selling LAB is often placing HAB and buying paraffins, and a buyer of one is frequently a buyer of another. We quote them from a single desk rather than splitting them between the barrel and the chemicals book, which is where they usually get separated and where the market intelligence gets lost.
LAB is the feedstock for linear alkylbenzene sulphonate, the dominant anionic surfactant in household and industrial detergents. That single downstream use is what makes the specification so particular: the buyer is not blending it, they are reacting it, and a reaction is less forgiving than a blend.
- Linear alkylbenzene (LAB)
- Heavy alkylbenzene (HAB)
- Normal paraffins
Linear alkylbenzene
The parameters that decide whether it sulphonates cleanly.
Detergent-grade alkylate for sulphonation into LAS. The assay governs, not a trade name and not a producer's brand — two parcels that both say “LAB” can behave very differently in the same unit.
| Parameter | What it governs |
|---|---|
| Chain-length distribution | The alkyl chain length, typically across the detergent range, and its distribution. It sets the solubility, foaming, detergency and biodegradation profile of the finished surfactant. A formulator who has optimised a product around one distribution cannot swap to another without reformulating. |
| Linearity | The proportion of straight-chain material. Linearity is why LAS biodegrades where the branched alkylbenzenes it replaced did not, and it is a regulated expectation in most detergent markets rather than a preference. |
| Bromine index | Residual unsaturation. High bromine index means olefins carried through the alkylation, and in the sulphonation reactor those produce colour and by-products. This is the number that most often causes a parcel to be rejected. |
| Sulphonability | A direct measure of how the material behaves in the reaction it exists for. Reported as the residue after sulphonation. |
| Colour | Klett or Saybolt. Colour in the feed carries into the acid and into the finished detergent, where it is visible to the consumer and cannot be corrected downstream. |
| Free benzene | Residual unreacted benzene. A carcinogen, tightly limited in the product and in the workplace, and the parameter with the sharpest regulatory edge on this page. It belongs on every certificate of analysis and should be read before the commercial parameters. |
| Water content and appearance | Water disrupts sulphonation. Appearance is the cheapest first-pass check on whether a parcel is what the certificate says. |
Heavy alkylbenzene
The co-product, and a genuinely useful base fluid.
HAB comes off the alkylation unit as the heavier fraction. It is a by-product in the sense that its volume is set by LAB production rather than by demand — which makes availability a function of somebody else's operating rate, and makes term arrangements worth more than they look.
- Lubricants and greases
- As a base fluid and blending component, valued for solvency and low pour point.
- Transformer and process oils
- Where its dielectric behaviour and oxidation stability suit the application. Specification here is tighter and the qualification is the buyer's, not ours.
- Drilling fluid formulations
- As a component in oil-based mud systems, subject to the environmental limits the operating jurisdiction applies to discharge.
- Specification parameters
- Viscosity, density, flash point, pour point, colour, aromatic content and water. The relevant set depends entirely on which of the three uses above it is going into, so tell us the application first.
- Where lubricant buyers usually start
- See Base Oils & Additives — HAB is frequently one component of a formulation rather than the whole answer.
Normal paraffins
Sold both as feedstock and as product.
Molecular-sieve n-paraffins in the detergent-range cuts. Sold to LAB producers as feedstock, and separately into chlorinated paraffin production, solvents and specialty applications.
- Cut and distribution
- The carbon number range and its distribution. As LAB feedstock this determines what the resulting alkylate can be; as a solvent it determines volatility and flash point.
- Normal paraffin content
- The purity of the separation. Non-normal material carried through the sieve becomes branched product downstream, which is exactly what the linearity specification on LAB exists to prevent.
- Aromatics and sulphur
- Both are catalyst concerns in the dehydrogenation step and product-quality concerns in solvent use. Low limits, verified rather than assumed.
- Flash point and classification
- Governs the transport classification. Lighter cuts may be classified as flammable liquids under Class 3; heavier cuts frequently are not. Classification is confirmed per cut in writing before booking rather than carried over from a previous parcel.
- Chlorinated paraffin use
- Where paraffins are destined for chlorination, the destination's chemical regulations govern what the resulting product may be — short-chain chlorinated paraffins are restricted in most major markets. That is the buyer's compliance position, and we will ask about it rather than leave it unexamined.
Straight answer
What it is not, said before you find out.
- LAB is not fungible
- A parcel that meets a generic LAB description can still be wrong for your unit. If your plant is optimised around a distribution, changing supplier is a qualification exercise, not a purchase decision, and we would rather run it as one.
- A producer name is not a specification
- Units get revamped, feedstocks change, and cuts move. We contract on parameters and test methods, and we test the claim rather than accept the heading.
- HAB availability is not demand-driven
- It is produced in proportion to LAB. When LAB rates fall, HAB is short regardless of what HAB buyers are willing to pay, and no amount of price solves it inside the cycle.
- Free benzene is a limit, not a nice-to-have
- It carries a workplace exposure and regulatory position at your end as well as ours. Any parcel we offer carries the figure; any parcel offered to you without it is incomplete.
- We do not publish a standing assay sheet
- Available cuts move with the producing unit. A published sheet would be out of date and would be quoted back at us. Assays are released against a live enquiry through the Technical Library.
- Parcel size and equipment shape the price
- Chemical tanker parcels, ISO tanks, flexitanks and drums are not interchangeable economics, and the smallest lot is rarely the cheapest per tonne delivered. We will say which format the enquiry actually wants.
How to specify
Seven lines, and we can price it properly.
- 1 · Product
- LAB, HAB or normal paraffins, with the cut where you know it.
- 2 · Downstream process
- Sulphonation, lubricant blending, chlorination, solvent use. This is what tells us which parameters actually govern.
- 3 · Specification and methods
- For LAB: chain-length distribution, linearity, bromine index, sulphonability, colour, free benzene, water. For HAB and paraffins: the parameter set for your application.
- 4 · Current supply
- What you run today, if you are prepared to say. It is the fastest route to an offer that will actually work in your unit.
- 5 · Parcel size and pattern
- Trial parcel or term supply, and the volume per lifting.
- 6 · Delivery format
- Bulk chemical tanker parcel, ISO tank, flexitank or drums; FOB, CIF or CFR.
- 7 · Destination
- Port and country, for classification, SDS language and the import position.
Inspection
What we check, and what travels with the goods.
- Certificate of analysis
- Producer or independent laboratory, against the agreed test-method schedule, batch-specific and tied to the parcel. Free benzene reported on every certificate.
- Independent inspection
- An agency appointed for the parcel — SGS, Bureau Veritas or Intertek — instructed jointly by both sides, sampling under supervision at a point agreed before the vessel arrives. Quality determination point and quantity determination point named separately in the contract rather than assumed, with sealed retained samples held at both ends.
- Previous cargo and tank cleanliness
- Declared and certified. On material going into a sulphonation unit, contamination from a previous cargo is not a deduction — it is a rejected parcel and a cleaned reactor.
- Documentation per shipment
- Certificate of analysis; safety data sheet under REACH / CLP or the GHS format the destination enforces; transport classification with UN number and class where the cut is classified; previous cargo declaration and tank cleanliness certificate; certificate of origin; bill of lading; and the inspection report.
Enquiries
Every enquiry is answered by the desk that handles it.
Send the product, quantity, delivery basis, destination and timing. We revert with availability, an indication and the documentation that accompanies it. Specifications are released once we know who we are speaking with.