Uses of food grade paraffin

Some paraffin wax is edible. For example, the paraffin wax used in lipstick and lip balm is of edible grade. If you know how to make food-grade paraffin at home, you will know that some food-grade paraffin is made using honeycombs. In addition to honeycomb, food-grade paraffin can also be extracted from petroleum. No matter which type of food grade paraffin, it has a wide range of uses.

Paraffin wax, also known as crystalline wax, is a mixture of hydrocarbons with 18 to 30 carbon atoms. The main components are straight-chain alkanes (about 80% to 95%), as well as a small amount of alkanes with individual branches and monocyclic cycloalkanes with long side chains (the total content of the two is less than 20%). Paraffin wax is a lubricating oil fraction obtained from crude oil distillation, which is processed through solvent refining, solvent dewaxing or wax freezing crystallization, squeeze dewaxing to obtain wax paste, and then deoiled and additionally refined to obtain flake or needle-shaped crystals. According to the degree of processing and refining, it can be divided into three types: fully refined paraffin wax, semi-refined paraffin wax and crude paraffin wax.

Each type of wax is divided into different varieties according to its melting point, generally at intervals of 2°C, such as 52, 54, 56, 58 and other brands. Crude paraffin has a high oil content and is mainly used to make matches, fiberboards, tarpaulins, etc. Fully refined paraffin wax and semi-refined paraffin wax have a wide range of uses. They are mainly used as components and packaging materials for food, oral medicines and certain commodities (such as wax paper, crayons, candles, carbon paper), coatings for baking containers, for preserving fruits, insulating electrical components, improving rubber's anti-aging properties and increasing its flexibility, etc. It can also be used for oxidation to produce synthetic fatty acids.

Due to its high oil content, crude paraffin is mainly used to make matches, fiberboards, tarpaulins, etc. After adding polyolefin additives to paraffin, its melting point increases, and its adhesion and flexibility increase.

, widely used in moisture-proof and waterproof packaging paper, cardboard, surface coating of certain textiles and candle production.

By soaking paper in paraffin wax, various wax papers with good waterproof properties can be made, which can be used for food, medicine packaging, metal rust prevention and printing industry; after paraffin is added to cotton yarn, textiles can be made soft, smooth and elastic; paraffin wax can also be used to make detergents, emulsifiers, dispersants, plasticizers, greases, etc.

Fully refined paraffin wax and semi-refined paraffin wax have a wide range of uses, mainly as a component and packaging material for food, oral medicines and certain commodities (such as wax paper, crayons, candles, carbon paper), as a coating for baking containers, and for preserving fruits.

, insulation of electrical components, improving rubber anti-aging and increasing flexibility, etc. It can also be used for oxidation to produce synthetic fatty acids.

As a latent heat storage material, paraffin has the advantages of large latent heat of phase change, small volume change during solid-liquid phase change, good thermal stability, no supercooling phenomenon, and relatively low price. In addition, the development of aviation, aerospace, microelectronics and optoelectronics technology often requires that the large amount of heat dissipated by high-power components when working can only be dissipated within a limited heat dissipation area and in a very short time. Low-melting-point phase change materials can reach the melting point faster than high-melting-point phase change materials, make full use of latent heat to achieve temperature control, and have a relatively short thermal response time. The many advantages of paraffin have made it widely used in various fields such as aviation, aerospace, microelectronics and other high-tech systems, as well as house energy conservation.

GB 2760-96 stipulates that it is allowed to be used in gum base, with a limit of 50.0g/kg. It is also used abroad for anti-sticking in the production of glutinous rice paper, with a dosage of 6g/kg. In addition, it is also widely used in food packaging materials for moisture-proof, anti-stick and oil-proof properties. It is suitable for components of food chewing gum, bubble gum and pharmaceutical gold oil, as well as waxes that directly contact food and medicines such as heat carriers, demoulding, tableting, and polishing (made from waxy fractions of petroleum or shale oil by cold pressing, etc.).