Lubricants renewable resources

Vegetable oils represent only 5% of the renewable resources available. Today, vegetable oils currently provide a marginal carbon feedstock contribution to the chemical industry in such applications as solvents, surfactants, and lubricants. Vegetable oils may, however, play a much more important role in the future. They are mixtures of fatty acid trigclycerides whose typical molecular structures are given in Figure 10.12. 

In our laboratory, we have reported the direct conversion of soybean oils in supercritical carbon dioxide to polymers with lower molecular weights (28). The resulting polymers could be used as lubricants and hydraulic fluids. The advantages of these polymers are their availability from a renewable resource, their biodegradability and their green processing method. Here, we discuss the synthesis and characterization of the resulting polymers from soybean oils. 

Keywords Antioxidants, Emulsifiers, Initiators, Integrated product policy. Lubricants, Plasticizers, Polymerization, Protective colloids. Renewable resources. Stabilizers, Surfactants, Sustainability... 

Lubricants for plastics processing are to a large extent synthetic waxes derived from coal or petrochemical syntheses or natural waxes derived from renewable resources. 

Important lubricant groups [154] are synthetic and natural hydrocarbon waxes and natural waxes derived from renewable resources, more particularly natural fats and oils. 

Willing, A. Oleochemical esters—environmentally compatible raw materials for oils and lubricants from renewable resources. Fett/Lipid 1999, 101, 192—198. 

One of the most important renewable resources was vegetable oil mainly in chemical industry to synthesize monomers and polymers which can play a role in day-to-day life (Biermann et al. 2000 Gunner et al. 2006). Vegetable oils are already used in many industries like coatings, lubricants, and agrochemicals as already reported in recent articles and reviews. This vegetable oil plays a major role in synthesis of polymer composites mainly in four continents, namely Asia, North America, South America, and Europe (Cunningham and Yapp 1974 Bussell 1974 Hodakowski et al. 1975 Trecker et al. 1976 Salunkhe et al. 1992 Force and Starr 1988). 

Soybean oil is an abundant annually renewable resource. It is composed of triglycerides with long chain saturated and unsaturated hitty acids. The presence of these unsaturated tty acids results in poor oxidative stability. However, this enhanced reactivity also allows for chemical modification to introduce new functionalities to the oil. A novel single-step catalytic ozonolysis and in-situ reaction will be described. The reaction proceeds rapidly and efficiently at room temperature in the absence of solvents. The catalytic ozonolysis reaction has been used to reduce the unsaturation in soybean oil, and successfiiliy prepare a number of potentially useful materials such as bio-lubricants with good thermal/oxidative stability, bio-diesel with thermal properties comparable to that of Diesel Fuel 2, and bio-plastic intermediates such as polyols, polyesters, and polyamides. This new class of soy-based materials is competitive both in cost and performance to petroleum based nuterials and offers the added advantage of being environmentally friendly and sustainable. 

Willing, A. (1999) Oleochemical Esters Environmentally Compatible Raw Materials For Oils and Lubricants From Renewable Resources, Fett/Lipid, 101, 192-198. 

Willing, A. (2001) Lubricants Based on Renewable Resources- an Environmentally Alternative to Mineral Oil Products, Chemosphere 43, 89-98. 

Biodiesel is a fuel derived from renewable natural resources such as soybean and rapeseed and consists of alkyl esters derived from transesterification of triglycerides with methanol. In spite of all the advantages of biodiesel, such as low emissiotts, biodegradability, non-toxicity, and lubricity, the major hurdle in penetration of biodiesel is its high cost because of the expensive food grade refined vegetable oil feedstock. 

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