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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #172708
Title: BIOBASED LUBRICANTS FOR INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS

Author
item Erhan, Sevim
item SHARMA, BRAJENDRA - PENN STATE UNIVERSITY
item ADHVARYU, ATANU - PENN STATE UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: World Oleochemical Conference
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/1/2004
Publication Date: 4/10/2005
Citation: Erhan, S.Z., Sharma, B.K., Adhvaryu, A. 2005. Biobased lubricants for industrial applications. World Oleochemical Conference. p. 89.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: As environmental concerns are growing, 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 chemical additives and high-oleic vegetable oils. 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 such as bio-based hydraulic fluids, biodegradable oils for heavy equipment, bio-based drip fluid for agriculture equipment and even some mineral oil-based lubricants for high-temperature applications.