APPLICABILITY OF VEGETABLE OIL DERIVATIVES FOR BIODEGRADABLE LUBRICANTS

Authors: ASADAUSKAS, SVAJUS - PENN STATE, UNIV PK, PA; Erhan, Sevim

Submitted to: Annual Meeting and Expo of the American Oil Chemists' Society
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/13/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Biodegradable lubricants present an opportunity for vegetable oils to be
utilized at large scale. Biodegradability is a property of basestock,
which amounts to more than 80% of lubricant. Volatility, oxidative
stability, oxypolymerization tendencies and low temperature properties
of vegetable oils were tested to compare them against other
biodegradable basestocks, such as polyalphaolefins (PAO), isoalkyl
adipates and polyol oleates. Test to Investigate Liquid
Oxypolymerization of Nonvolatile Analytes (ILONA) at 150C and 175C
showed that vegetable oils are essentially nonvolatile, whereas other
basestocks exhibited evaporation in excess of 20%wt. ILONA demonstrated
that oxidative stabilities of vegetable oils were much lower than those
of PAO or adipates. However, vegetable oils with minor contents of
methylene interrupted polyunsaturated fatty acids, such as meadowfoam or
high oleic sunflower, showed better resistance to oxypolymer formation
than commercial oleates in ILONA. Pour point and cold storage at -25C
tests showed poor performance of vegetable oils at low temp. Chemical
modification is necessary to overcome the performance deficiencies.
Elimination of methylene interrupted fatty acids can increase oxidative
stability and reduction of molecular weight through interesterification
can improve low temperature properties.