UD researchers synthesize renewable oils for use in lubricants

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https://www.udel.edu/udaily/2019/february/renewable-lubricant-oils-catalysis-center-energy-innovation/

CCEI researchers at UD have outlined a strategy to create renewable lubricants from non-food biomass, such as woodchips (above), grass, and other organic waste.

Keeping things moving

Article by Kevin Liedel Photo by Jaynell Keely February 01, 2019
UD researchers synthesize renewable oils for use in lubricants

Engine gears, plane thrusters, refrigerator compressors, wind turbines — the list of important industrial machinery, agricultural equipment, transportation vessels, and home applications that depend on lubricants might be endless. These slick substances quite literally keep the world turning, touching nearly every facet of modern life and comprising a global industry worth more than $60 billion dollars annually.

And yet, as essential as they are to our way of life, lubricants leave a heavy environmental footprint. Common lubricants, oils, greases and emollients typically consist of mineral, or petroleum, base oils — often up to 90 percent by weight. These mineral base oils are highly volatile and tend to thicken quickly, which means that lubricants need to be replaced often, generating waste.

Synthetic base oils are key to efficient lubricants — owing to their better lubrication properties, stability, and suitability for extreme temperatures compared to their regular mineral-base oils counterparts — but producing them with tunable (i.e. customizable) structures and specifications can be both challenging and expensive. This lack of tunability creates a need for mixing the base-oil with several expensive additives, increasing the environmental footprint of lubricants.

Now, researchers at the University of Delaware-led Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation (CCEI) and investigators from its partner institutions are working to solve these problems. Their findings report a strategy to create renewable lubricant base oils efficiently from non-food biomass — things like wood, switchgrass and other sustainable, organic waste — and fatty acids, which are present in used vegetable oils and animal fat.

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https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aav5487