Eco-Friendly Engine Oils: The Future of Petrol Engine Lubrication

Engine oils play an important role in lubricating the moving parts inside petrol and diesel engines. They help reduce friction, prevent wear and tear, remove heat, seal combustion gases, and keep the engine clean.

For over a century, conventional mineral-based oils derived from crude oil have been used for these purposes.

However, with growing environmental concerns around the world, eco-friendly engine oils are emerging as the future of petrol engine lubrication.

What are Eco-Friendly Engine Oils?

Eco-friendly engine oils, also known as biodegradable oils or green oils, are made from renewable sources such as vegetables, plants and other biological materials. Unlike traditional mineral oils which take very long to break down in the environment, biodegradable oils can degrade into harmless components in just a few weeks under favorable conditions. Some common feedstocks used in formulating eco-friendly engine oils include:

• Various plant oils like canola, sunflower, soybean, palm and castor bean oil
• Animal fats
• Used cooking oils collected from restaurants
• Algae oils
• Bio-derived esters and synthetic esters

These renewable sources go through processes like refinement, enhancement with additives and extensive testing to produce engine oils that meet industry specifications for performance. The end products tend to have excellent lubrication properties while being non-toxic and completely biodegradable.

Benefits of Eco-Friendly Engine Oils

Using eco-friendly oils over conventional products offers several advantages:

Reduced Environmental Impact

Biodegradable oils break down into organic matter that doesn’t persist in the environment or harm wildlife and vegetation. Their adoption thus promotes sustainability and reduces end-of-life pollution risks.

Lower Emissions

Multiple studies show that plant-based oils can lower exhaust emissions of hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter compared to traditional mineral oils. This helps meet stringent emission norms.

Better Cold Start Performance

Eco-friendly oils made from custom blends of various renewable sources tend to have excellent low-temperature properties. This enables easy cold starts, faster oil circulation and reduced engine wear during start-ups.

1. Longer Oil Change Intervals

With significant advancements in oil formulations, some environment-friendly engine oils now guarantee oil change intervals of over 15,000 miles. The long-lasting quality reduces maintenance costs.

2. Energy Independence

Reliance on feedstocks like seed oils and algae oils reduces dependence on imported crude oil – promoting regional or national energy independence.

Challenges in Adoption of Eco-Friendly Oils

While their benefits make a strong case, eco-friendly lubricants haven’t yet caught up to dominate the engine oil market. Some deterrents in their widespread adoption include:

• Higher prices – Bio-based and synthetic oils currently cost more than mineral alternatives due to processing costs and multiple additives required.
• Questions over durability – Although research data is improving, doubts still linger whether plant-derived lubricants offer the same engine protection as mineral oils over tens of thousands of miles.
• Wildly varying quality – As eco-friendly oils are relatively new, quality control measures to ensure formulation standards are yet to mature. The resulting variability causes reluctance among vehicle manufacturers to approve these products.
• Low availability – Consumers struggling to find bio-lubricants meeting OEM approvals and correct viscosity grades is another adoption challenge in the aftermarket. Accessibility issues deter their demand.

Future Prospects of Eco-Friendly Oils

While constraints exist today, the long-term outlook seems bright for eco-friendly engine oils. Predictions are – rising environmental activism, tighter emission laws, high crude oil prices and technology improvements will soon accelerate their production and consumption.

Multiple carmakers already run pilot tests on greener lubricants and plan to commercialize them. Governments are also expected to incentivize production and provide tax benefits to eco-conscious manufacturers. Within the next decade, leading experts forecast over 15% of the total lubricants market shifting from mineral oils to eco-friendly alternatives.

Refining Processes for Eco-Friendly Oils

Turning raw feedstocks like vegetable oils, animal fats and used cooking oils into viable eco-friendly engine oils involves extensive refinement to achieve desired lubrication properties.

The initial purification process removes contaminants through methods like degumming, neutralization, bleaching and dewaxing. Degumming uses water to eliminate plant gums and resins, while neutralization uses acids or alkalis to remove free fatty acids. Bleaching then utilizes activated clay to adsorb colored components and oxidation products. Dewaxing, meanwhile, crystallizes and precipitates higher melting point waxes by chilling the oils.

Additionally, hydro processing subjects the purified bio-oils to high temperatures and hydrogen environments to improve oxidation stability and remove oxygen. The resulting products contain over 90% fully saturated hydrocarbon chains versus unsaturated chains in unprocessed vegetable oils. This significantly enhances oxidative performance.

Refining also selectively removes shorter and longer chain hydrocarbons through vacuum distillation to create molecules offering optimal viscosity. Other processes like interesterification, isomerization and hydrogenation further help obtain ideal flow characteristics.

The finished products then undergo stringent testing to evaluate characteristics like volatility, pour point, ash content and tribology performance before being blended with supplemental anti-wear, anti-oxidant, anti-foam and viscosity index improving additives.

Potential Feedstock: Algae Oil

Among emerging potential future feedstocks for eco-friendly engine oils is algae oil. Algae oils contain up to 40% natural oil content in their cells – eliminating the need for extensive cultivation and resource inputs seen in agricultural crops.

High photosynthetic yield also enables extremely fast growth cycles, with oil output per acre per year being over 200 times greater than prominent oilseed crops. Easy customization of production conditions further helps maximize desired oil properties.

Advances in genetic engineering additionally promise algae strains tailored to yield oils closely resembling petroleum-based oils in molecular structure. This can facilitate easy integration into existing refineries and lube production streams.

Leading companies and research institutions currently focus extensive algae biofuel projects, with engine lubrication as an adjacent application. Experts believe algae oils, with their immense yield potential and customization flexibility, can provide economical, renewable and high-performance feedstock at commercial scales in the next 5-7 years.

If consistently produced to stringent specifications, they can greatly expand the availability of eco-friendly lubricants in the near future.

Final Words

With sustainability becoming the buzzword across industries, bio-based lubricants present an eco-friendly solution to reliably power petrol engines in the future. In addition to being harmless for nature, they offer tangible performance benefits too. While their adoption is low currently, concerted efforts across automotive value chains to improve quality, affordability and availability can unlock their full potential. With the right momentum, eco-friendly engine oils seem well-poised to ultimately become the mainstream choice.