Lube-Tech
PUBLISHED BY LUBE: THE EUROPEAN LUBRICANTS INDUSTRY MAGAZINE
No.143 page 1
Vegetable oil-based additives for lubricant formulations
Brajendra K. Sharma & Sevim Z. Erhan, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service Eastern Regional Research Center, Wyndmoor
Raj Shah, Blerim Gashi & Nicole Turner, Koehler Instrument Company
Gobinda Karmakar & Pranab Ghosh, Natural Product and Polymer Chemistry Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of North Bengal
Introduction With increasing environmental concerns, the use of commercial petro-based lubricants which are harmful to the eco-system is gradually being replaced by environmentally benign lubricants prepared from vegetable oils (VO) or other natural resources. Although VO or animal fats had been used as lubricants since ancient times, due to certain limitations such as poor thermo-oxidative and hydrolytic stability, they have been replaced by mineral oil/synthetic based lubricants. However, in the 21st century, VO and natural oils have overcome these limitations and come into focus for the formulation of bio-lubricants due to the rapid depletion of non-renewable resources and increased pollution from them. They can be used for both boundary and hydrodynamic lubrication due to their amphiphilic character (polar ester group and non-polar hydrocarbon chain). The global biolubricants market size is projected to grow from 2 billion USD in 2020 to 2.4 billion USD by 2025, at a compound
annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.1% between 2020 and 2025. The dominant market position of the biolubricants segment can be attributed to their high biodegradability, lower toxicity, excellent temperature- viscosity relationship, high flash point, and superb lubricity. The growing environmental awareness and adoption of stringent regulations have increased the acceptance of plant-based oil-derived biolubricants. Various regulations such as the vessel general permit in the US and EcoLabel in Europe have made it mandatory to use biolubricants or environmentally accepted lubricants in shipping vessels, which is driving the market.
Vegetable oils are mainly comprised of triglycerides of long-chain fatty acids having different degrees of unsaturation. Thus they have different chemical structures and different properties when compared to mineral oil. The limitations of VO such as a lack of viscosity range, their compatibility with different chemical compounds, low thermo-oxidative stability,
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