44
F+L Week 2015 | 10-13 March 2015
DevelopmentofanAPISN,
SAE0W-20EngineOil for
TropicalClimatesusinga
newNovelViscosity
ModifierandVerification
of itsPerformancebyField
Trial inThailand
Thursday 12 March 11:00 | 11:30
SUNTHORN PREDAPITAKKUN,
AMPORN SUDSANGUAN (PRESENTER)
AND UMAPORNWONGJAREONPANIT
PTT Research&Technology Institute, PTT
PublicCompany Limited
LIMPEI YI
InfineumSingapore Pte. Ltd.
Engine lubrication in the global automotive
industry has many challenges today. One
of them is the pursuit of fuel economy driven
primarily by legislation and consumer expec-
tations. As a result, the use of lower viscosity
engine oils is becoming increasingly popular,
but in moving from higher to lower viscosity
grades, the formulator must be careful to
ensure the engine is more robustly protected
against wear.
Due to this, even though low-viscosity
engine oils like SAE 0W-20 could provide
the added benefit of fuel economy, they are
not common in tropical climates. To address
these two seemingly discordant performance
characteristics, PTT has developed a new
API SN, SAE 0W-20 engine oil with a novel
viscosity modifier and conducted a field trial
with extended oil drain intervals to verify its
performance.
Field testing of the SAE 0W-20 engine
lubricating oil candidate was performed in
two phases, with an intention to gain a better
understanding of its performance in tropical
climates, especially its wear protection perfor-
mance in passenger cars.
In the first phase of the field trial, the SAE
0W-20 candidate oil was compared to a mar-
ket leading SAE 0W-20 oil: the target was to
show no harm in extended drain intervals of up
to 30,000 km in a leading Japanese passenger
car model in Thailand. The second phase of
the field trial was conducted using one of the
top five leading Japanese OEM’s genuine oil
with a viscosity grade of SAE 0W-20 being
sold in Thailand, with the oil drain interval
further extended to 40,000 km. In this phase,
the target was to even more severely test the
endurance performance of the candidate oil
and the reference oil. The engines of the field
trial vehicles were inspected both at the end
of Phase One and Phase Two. This, along
with used oil, fuel and oil consumption, were
analysed. In addition, fuel economy testing
using the New European Driving Cycle
(NEDC) was conducted on the candidate oil
and reference oils to verify its fuel economy
performance.
Results from the field trial showed that
the candidate oil using a novel viscosity
modifier was able to achieve similar fuel
economy performance whilst at higher
kinematic viscosity and with a lower loss of
kinematic viscosity over the oil drain period.
Engine inspections also showed compara-
ble performance in sludge and wear; as well
as excellent performance over the reference
oil in deposit control. In the fuel economy
testing using the NEDC, the fuel econo-
my performance of the candidate oil was
found to be comparable to the reference
oils, which concurred with that of the field
trial. The data from this exercise showed
the more shear stable candidate formula-
tion to be highly suitable for use in tropical
climates. It was able to provide excellent
wear and deposit control under long-drain
interval conditions and deliver comparable
fuel economy whilst at higher kinematic
viscosity than the reference oils.
Amporn Sudsanguan works
in the petroleum products
and alternative fuels research
department at the PTT
Research and Technology
Institute, PTT Public Company Limited,
where she is the specialist in charge of
research and development of automotive
lubricants. She earned a master’s degree in
petrochemistry at Chulalongkorn University.
Umaporn Wongjareonpanit is a researcher in
the petroleum products and alternative fuels
research department at the PTT Research
and Technology Institute, PTT Public Com-
pany Limited. Her responsibilities include
research and development of automotive
lubricants. She graduated with a master’s
degree in chemistry fromMahidol University.
