Sustainable tailor-made and bio-based high-performance lubricants that combine biorenewability, biodegradability and economic efficiency

Abstract

Achieving a “circular economy” within a short term is currently a hot topic in research and a challenge for humankind; it requires solutions, in particular, within the process and product portfolio of the chemical industry. However, the renewability of the raw material is a “must” criterion for all such industrial products of a future bioeconomy, and the need to fulfil the criterion of biodegradability strongly depends on the type and application of the product. One of the industrial product segments in which biorenewability and biodegradability have to be merged is the economically important industrial segment of lubricants. In this study, the rational design combined with the experimental development of a new generation of bio-based and industrially applicable lubricant materials is demonstrated. Such new lubricant products fulfil the criteria of (1) a changed raw material basis from fossil feedstocks to readily accessible and economically attractive biorenewables; (2) excellent biodegradability; (3) suitability for the tailor-made fine-tuning of needed performance properties of lubricants, such as viscosity and pour point; and (4) an economically favorable production using efficient and sustainable catalytic technologies from both “worlds of catalysis”, namely chemo- and biocatalysis. These new bio-based lubricant products are produced in a highly cost-effective and sustainable manner based on the large-scale feasible hydroformylation of oleate substrates and subsequent hydrogenation as initial steps, followed by solvent-free and energy-saving enzymatic esterification at low temperature, thus forming the final oligomer lubricant products. Furthermore, the presence of such a modular tool to adjust the needed tribology properties also enables tailor-made blending by mixing such individual lubricant products.