Additivation of vegetal oils for improving tribological characteristics

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents a review on issues on additivating vegetal oils with friction and anti-wear modifiers. A SWOT analysis on vegetal oils reveals the shortcomings of these oils and the trend in their modification by the help of additives. Based on research reports available from literature and their experimental work, the authors formulated a synthesis on how the friction and wear modifiers act in lubricants and especially in vegetal oils. They discussed the influence of some friction and anti-wear modifiers added in vegetal oils, especially in soybean oil and rapeseed oil. The conclusion is that additivation of vegetal oils is still at the beginning as the reported results are not so efficient as compared to aditivation of classical alternative -mineral oils and even less as compared to synthetic oils. But research must be continued as these vegetal oils become an actual resource for lubricants base-stock.