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The current leading industrial crops are certain to map out the future of non-food biobased products.
Safflower has shown to have more consistent yields compared to other high oleic seeds like sunflower. The genetic variety of high oleic safflower grown in Australia have several years of planting and harvesting history; and the oil produced have been successfully marketed in industrial oils such as transformer oils, hydraulic fluids, and extreme pressure greases. The high level of oxidation stability due to its high oleic acid content reduces the need for antioxidants and or chemical modifications when used for grease or industrial lubricants. But it is often overlooked by practitioners that as important as the oleic acid content is for oxidation stability, the presence of other fatty acids with double and triple bonds could be even more important. The table below shows the oleic acid content of six oils. While the high level of oleic acid (C18:1) is desired, the presence of C18:2 linoleic acid and C18:3 linolenic acid negatively impacts oxidation stability by great magnitudes. Even a 0.25 percent increase in the linolenic acid has shown to reduce the oxidation stability by as much as 50% and effect product performance negatively. In growing crops, these percentages often correspond to the crop yield. For example the same parent seeds with slight variations to increase the yield could deliver a higher level of C18:2 and C18:3 content thereby reducing the oxidation performance for soybean oil. Then there is the presence of fully saturated fatty acids like palmitic or stearic acid; which impact the pour points of the oil in a negative way.
The Australian high oleic safflower variety shows 0% linolenic acid content and small percentages of stearic and palmitic acids when compared with other oils. This by far appears to be the most optimised oil for applications where high level of oxidation stability and good cold temperature flowability are desired.
As all vegetable oils, the genetic variety of safflower oil too has limitations like other vegetable oils when compared with biobased derived synthetic oil. Those include relative high pour point and some interactions with elastomers when considered for industrial lubricants use. But its high oxidation stability over other vegetable oils offers the greatest potential for its use in most demanding industrial applications. When licensed for growing in other countries, the high oleic safflower oil could become Australia’s next high value agricultural export akin to its wool and lamb meat known worldwide.
Sources: 1. Honary, L. and Richter, E. (2011) Biobased Lubricants and Greases: Technology and Products. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
2.
https://www.go-resources.com.au/index.php 3.
https://davesgarden.com/ 4.
https://smartearthcamelina.com
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Table 2: Comparison of super high oleic safflower oil with other oils. Source: Go Resources.
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LUBE MAGAZINE NO.170 AUGUST 2022
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