High performance ester lubricants from natural oils

Lubricants impact on the environment at all stages of production, usage and disposal. The awareness and concern over the usage of petroleum-based products and their impact on the environment have created an opportunity to produce environmentally acceptable lubricants from agricultural feedstocks. A new class of bio-based esters derived from vegetable oils that exhibit excellent low temperature flow properties and oxidation stability are discussed. One of the major advantages of bio-based synthetic esters in better performance at a lower cost compared to synthetic esters. This is possible due to recent advances in the biotechnology of vegetable oils and the chemical modifications that could be applied to convert these natural esters into high performance biolubricants.