ARS | Publication request: BIODEGRADABLE INDUSTRIAL LUBRICANTS

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: June 11, 2005
Publication Date: October 19, 2005
Citation: Erhan, S.Z., Sharma, B.K. 2005. Biodegradable industrial lubricants [abstract]. International Symposium on Biocatalysis and Biotechnology, Functional Foods and Industrial Products. p. 49.

Technical Abstract: As environmental concerns grow, vegetable oils are finding their way into total loss lubricants for military applications, and in outdoor activities such as forestry, mining, railroads, dredging, fishing and agriculture hydraulic systems. Vegetable oil based lubricants offer significant environmental benefits as well as providing satisfactory performance in a wide array of applications. Synthetic ester based fluids may also offer these advantages, but their cost can be very high. Even the mineral oil fluids cannot meet most lubrication performance needs without additives. Therefore, shortcomings of vegetable oils such as low thermo-oxidative stability and poor cold flow behavior can still be improved through the use of high-oleic vegetable oils with chemical additives. Vegetable oil-based lubricants formulated using the above approach exhibit superior oxidative stability, improved low temperature properties (pour points) and better wear properties compared to some of the commercially available industrial oils. In this study, the biodegradability of the above fluid was also compared with commercially available bio-based and mineral oil based lubricants.