Synthetic Waxes: Innovation in Action.

Synthetic Waxes are chemical products developed artificially by man, with the aim of reproducing the physical properties of vegetable, animal, mineral and petroleum waxes that exist normally in nature. As it occurs in many other industrial fields, the market share of Synthetic Waxes has experienced an accelerated growth from year to year. There are different categories used to classify Synthetic Waxes, depending mainly on their basic functional groups. The most common Synthetic Waxes include long chain ethylene polymers, halogenated hydrocarbons, alkyl esters and polyhydric alcohol (polyol) esters, hydrogenated waxes, straight chain and cyclic ketones, amide derivatives from fatty acids, hydrocarbon reaction products, esters of fatty acids and derivatives from polyoxyethylene sorbitol, among others. The Fischer-Tropsch Waxes are well known among the Synthetic Waxes category. They consist in hydrocarbons of very high molecular weight and melting point, and of great hardness.