Bio Lubricant Research Paper

A GREEN TECHNOLOGY BASED PRODUCTION OF BIO-LUBRICANT FOR FUTURE, CLEANER ENVIRONMENT FROM NON-EDIBLE OIL OF NORTH EAST INDIA - A REVIEW

Minakshi Gohain*1, Bhanupriya Das2 and Dhanapati Deka3
1,2M.Tech student, Department of Energy, Tezpur University, Assam, India
3Professor, Department of Energy, Tezpur University, Assam, India
E-mail: [e-mail]

ABSTRACT

Depletion of the natural resources, issue of food security and increased attention towards environmental issues has driven the lubricant industries to stimulate the development of non-edible oil based material as Bio-lubricant. The term Bio-lubricant applies to all lubricants that are both rapidly biodegradable and non toxic to human and aquatic environments. Conventional

Even with just a small market share rapeseed oil, crambe oil, palm oil, castor oil, lard and marine oils found specific applications in certain lubrication areas. But the development of lubricants from vegetable oils slowed because of e conomic and performance factors. Only a few oils, such as rapeseed and high-oleic oil, were used as base oils for lubricant until the early 1990s (Basu, Robley, Norris 1994). The lack of extensive use of plant based oil although it has the added advantage of being non-toxic, is largely due to the poor performance characteristics of the oil. Research has found that most of this plant based oils are unstable at higher temperatures. The main factor that caused instability at high temperatures has been found to be caused by the glycerol part of the tri-glycerides molecule. Tri-glycerides are the main component of most plant bearing oils. The arrangement of the hydrogen atom in the hydroxyl group of glycerol molecules has been found to be the key feature of the instability (Gryglewicz et al., 2003). However there are few applications that used plant based bio-degradable lubricants which are superior in terms of bio-degradability, especially when compared to mineral oils. Chemical modification of plant oil is an attractive way to overcome this limitation. Chemical modifications mainly polymerization, epoxidation and transesterification can be applied to further enhance its thermal stability (Omeis et al., 1998). Chemical modifications will produce a synthetic ester with better properties. This review highlights the production methods of bio-lubricants from native non-edible oils available in the North Eastern region of India, documenting the characteristics of the produced bio-lubricants along with comparative analysis of different bio-lubricants