Making Additives Using Plant Oils, Without Petroleum.!

We guess that you already know what an additive is.! Well.., but, for those who don’t know it, then here; “additive is a substance used to improve the performance of a lubricant”

In general, regular additives are made from petroleum So, in order to make this process much greener, a team of researchers at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have come up with an alternative approach. Here, in order to produce additives, instead of using petroleum, they have used fat molecules called “triglycerides”, extracted from well known plants such as soybean, corn or canola

According to the researchers at the ARS, this newly invented biobased additive can be used in wide range of activities, such as, in formulating greases; engine oils; and hydraulic, transmission and drilling fluids; This means, in simpler terms, it can act as regular additive.

Moreover, since this is a fully biodegradable product; rapid, easy and inexpensive methods can be used in its disposal process. But, besides everything else, the most interesting fact is that, its laboratory tests have shown, the new biobased additives having same or even better performance than a regular commercial petroleum based additive. …interesting..!! isn’t it.?

The U.S. demand for additives, already at nearly 2 billion pounds a year, is expected to increase 2 percent annually for the next five years. That projection might attract new interest in a process, developed several years ago by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) chemist Sevim Z. Erhan and her colleagues, for making additives from plants instead of petroleum. These biobased additives would be suitable for use in formulating greases; engine oils; and hydraulic, transmission and drilling fluids, according to Erhan.

Besides providing a potentially profitable market for growers in the Midwest and elsewhere, the fully biodegradable, new-age additives offer other benefits and, to date, no downside. Since they’re fully biodegradable, proper disposal is fast, easy and inexpensive. They can be used with either biobased or conventional lubricants. The additives meet all the standard criteria for a top-notch, antifriction, antiwear additive–namely, impressive viscosity and liquidity, high flashpoint, and stability despite temperature extremes.

Via: sciencedaily (Lubricants: With Biobased Additives, Scientists ‘Just Say No!’ To Petroleum)