Page 22 - FLI 2013 - 4th Quarter

FUELS & LUBES INTERNATIONAL Quarter Four 2013 22
F E A T U R E 专题报道
The search for renew-
able base oils has long been faced
with a number of challenges due
to the complex and varied needs
of the market, especially in the
engine oil space.
Traditionally, base oils from
vegetable oils have been used in
industrial applications only. That’s
about to change, as California
start-up Biosynthetic Technologies
gets ready to launch commercial
production of its bio-synthetic
base oil products, known as
estolides, which Chairman and
CEO Allen Barbieri describes as a
“novel disruptive technology.” The
company is in the final engineer-
ing phase for a full-scale commer-
cial plant to be built in Houston,
Texas.
The company wants to com-
pete against Group IV and V base
stocks. Barbieri says that its dem-
onstration plant, which was built
and is operated by Baton Rouge,
La.-based Albemarle Corp., has
proven ”that our cost of manu-
facturing in our first commercial
plant will be lower than PAO
manufacturing costs.”
“Further, through extensive
testing by over 40 major lubricant
manufacturers, top tier additive
companies and industry leading
equipment OEMs, we have data
that shows our products perform
better than Group IV and Group
V base oils in several key criteria.
Therefore, while we fully expect
we will capture significant market
share from Group V base oils
solely on price, we also expect we
will be able to capture a certain
amount of market share from
PAOs based on price and perfor-
mance,” he says.
Oxidation stability has always
been a problem for vegetable-
derived base oils.
The structure of many bio-
lubricants renders these products
susceptible to atmospheric oxygen
due to the presence of two or more
carbon double bonds. Oxidation
can lead to a number of problems,
most notably decomposition, an
increase in acid number and an
increase in viscosity. Decomposi-
tion, combined with increased
acidity, leads to significant levels
of sludge build-up. Viscosity
increases lead to similar problems
with regards to heat, as such in-
creases will slow the oil’s circula-
tion speed, which then decreases
the rate of heat dissipation.
Because of these shortcom-
ings, bio-based lubricants have not
taken as significant a foothold as
they could have.
So far, additives have been the
preferred method of addressing
the shortcomings of bio-based
lubricants, but this approach has
its own limitations. First, additives
provide limited improvement in
oxidative stability. For example,
a 2% mixture of additives placed
into castor oil only resulted in an
increase of from 15 to 100 minutes
using the Rotating Pressure Ves-
sel Oxidation Test (RPVOT)1 .
Further, additives cost money,
and given the finite potential for
Hip esters
为酯类新成员喝彩
California start-up says its novel technology makes
its renewable esters suitable for use in engine oils.
加州的创业企业称其新技术使可再生酯用于发动机油
作者：Blaine Denton