Mineral-based or petroleum-based lubricants are detrimental to the environment, as they are not easily biodegradable and are toxic towards aquatic organisms, and based on a non-renewable resource. Due to increasing global environment awareness, a keen search for more environmental-friendly lubricants is being made. Lubricants comprise 97%-98% base fluids with 2% performance additives. For better environmentalfriendliness, the present petroleum-based fluids can be replaced with either synthetic fluids or vegetable oils. As vegetable oils are less expensive than synthetic fluids, they are preferred. The performance of a lubricant is very much dependent on the quality of the base fluid used. Thermal stability and cold-temperature fluidity are the desirable properties for a good lubricant base fluid. Bio-based fluids from vegetable oils, such as soyabean oil, sunflower oil, canola oil and rapeseed oil, often have superior viscosity indices, flash points, extreme pressure lubricity, good compatibility with additives and lower volatility than their petroleum counterparts. However, many vegetable oils are inferior in thermal oxidative stability due to their high content of unsaturated fatty acids, and cold-temperature fluidity due to the high melting points of their saturated fatty acids. These drawbacks can be overcome by chemical or genetic modification of the fatty acid composition or by incorporating additives to the oil. Although palm oil contains equal amounts of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, its moderate thermal oxidative stability and cold-temperature fluidity make it potentially suitable for use as a biolubricant.

Main Research: Dr. Loh Soh Kheang