Biolubricants: Lubricants for the Future

Lubricants are used in engine and machine parts to reduce wear and tear and ensure smooth functioning of the machinery. Lubricants are mostly of petroleum origin. Lubricants consist of 70% petroleum based oil and the rest 30% are additives which modify the general properties of base oil to meet the requirements. The main problem with petroleum based lubricant is that it is non-biodegradable and may cause stormwater pollution from leaks in engine, hydraulic systems and brake line. Because of environmental pollution by petroleum based lubricants, the scientists and researchers are promoting the use of environment friendly bio-based lubricants.

 Biolubricants are the liquid oils derived from renewable or biomass based feedstocks. Biolubricants are formed either by pyrolysis of biomass or by using two step transesterification of vegetable oils. The bio-crude oil is further refined into biolubricant and various other bio-oil derivatives. Although, vegetable fat and animal fat based oils have good lubricity properties but these oils cannot be used directly as lubricants because of their low melting point and low oxidative stability. Thus, these oils need to be converted by two step transesterification process to achieve suitable properties. Non-edible oils and waste cooking oils can be used for the production of biolubricants.
        Figure 1: Typical Biolubricant     
The advantages of using biolubricants over conventional lubricants are:-
  1. Biolubricants produce a cleaner, less toxic work environment and fewer skin problems for those working with engines and hydraulic systems.
  2. Biolubricants are highly biodegradable.
  3. Biolubricants produce fewer emissions due to higher boiling temperature ranges of esters.
  4. Biolubricants offer better safety due to higher flashpoints, greater viscosity, less oil mist and vapour emissions.
  5. Biolubricants cost less over the product’s life-cycle due to less maintenance, storage and disposal requirements.
Inspite of benefits like high biodegradability, high viscosity and environment friendly, biolubricants are not without disadvantages. The disadvantages of biolubricants are:-
  1. Biolubricants have high viscosity at lower temperatures so may not be effective for use at lower temperatures.
  2. They have poor oxidative stabilty at high temperatures. To improve oxidative stability, anti-oxidants are added to biolubricants.
  3. Biolubricants are costlier than conventional lubricants.
Development of biolubricants require insight in the relationship between physicochemical and tribological properties of ingredients. Switching from lubricants to biolubricants will significantly impact the mechanisms relying on oil performance such as journal bearings, transmission gears, thrust bearings, ball bearings, cam followers and rubber based sealing components. These mechanisms which are originally designed for the use of conventional lubricants, may be altered for the use of biolubricants. It is important to study the impact of biolubricants on the whole tribo-systems before replacing the traditional lubricants.
Figure 2 : EPA infograph about VGP and environmentally acceptable lubricants


References
Location: India

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Solid Waste Management Hierarchy

Image
Waste management is the process in which the wastes are being collected, processed, and recycled to convert them into useful products or to disposed them in environment friendly manner. Solid Waste management has several steps which are ranked according to their preference. Figure 1: Solid waste management hierarchy chart  1. Prevention This is the most preferred step in solid waste management hierarchy. It includes using less materials in design and manufacture, manufacturing long lasting products and using less hazardous materials for manufacturing of materials. This step ensures lesser waste generation. This step also focuses on cleaner and environment friendly production. 2. Preparing for Reuse This step includes checking, cleaning, repairing, refurbishing whole items or spare parts. This is the most important step for minimizing waste generation. Here the waste is not allowed to enter into the disposal system. The wastes are collected in the middle of the production
Read more

Carbon Capture Technologies

Image
In my previous post on “Management of Carbon Emissions in Industries”, I have briefly mentioned about carbon capture and storage. In this post, I am going discuss various technologies used for carbon capture. Carbon dioxide has been captured from industries for more than 80 years. It is captured for industrial uses such as urea and ammonia production, carbonated beverage production, breweries. Capture technologies have three categories, depending on what stage of the process carbon dioxide is removed. These are:- Pre-Combustion Capture Post Combustion Capture Oxy-Fuel Combustion Capture Figure 1: Capture Technologies 1. Pre-Combustion Capture Here, carbon dioxide is separated from the fuel before combustion. It is done at very high temperature by splitting hydrocarbons into hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide is removed before combustion and the carbon dioxide undergoes combustion to form water. The hydrocarbons can be split by processes like gasification
Read more

Are Biodegradable Plastics the Future of Plastics?

Image
Plastics are versatile materials. They are used to manufacture many useful products like bags, buckets, cups, mugs, food wraps, product packaging etc. Plastics are long carbon chain polymers and are mostly produced from petrochemicals. In spite of their benefits, they have been bad for the environment. Hardly few of them are recycled and most of them end up in landfills. They are not biodegradable and cannot be composted. If they are carelessly disposed off in water bodies, they can cause damage to aquatic life as fishes and whales may accidentally consume them. Even burning of plastics is not a good solution as they emit toxic chemicals such as dioxins. Because of environmental concerns of using conventional plastics, the biodegradable plastics are gaining focus around the world. Biodegradable plastics are those plastics that can be degraded by the action of micro-organisms. All biodegradable plastics cannot be composted. Those that can be composted are known as compostable plastic
Read more