Development of Biolubricants from Vegetable Oils for Non-Internal Combustion Engine Applications

The promise of vegetable-based CEs in the lubrication industry lies in their ability to provide superior lubrication, thermal stability, and compatibility with various metals. The presence of unsaturated free fatty acids in the carbon chain of triglycerides and tertiary β-hydrogen group in the glycerol backbone causes low thermal and oxidative stability. Thus, this study investigated a cost-effective methodology that has been developed to produce biobased CEs with improved thermal and oxidative stability. This involves the conversion of vegetable oil triglycerides into trimethylolpropane (TMP) esters through a two-step transesterification-transesterification and a two-step hydrolysis-esterification process. To further increase the thermal and oxidative stability, an epoxidation reaction was performed in order to remove the C=C double bonds in the canola oil trimethylolpropane (COTMP) ester structure using tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP) as an oxidizing agent in the presence of a heterogeneous catalyst. The conversion, selectivity, oxirane oxygen content (OOC), and iodine value of the final epoxidized canola oil trimethylolpropane (ECOTMP) ester was 95.2%, 98.62%, 4.12%, and 3.4 mg I2/g, respectively. This work has focused on the conversion of vegetable oils to saturated complex esters through several chemical modifications (e.g., hydrolysis, esterification/transesterification, and epoxidation) and demonstrated the effective use of metal complexes as heterogeneous catalysts in the epoxidation reaction. The novelty of this study is the formulation of biolubricants with outstanding wear scar diameter (WSD) from vegetable oils and the development of a heterogeneous catalyst for epoxidation reaction to increasing the conversion, selectivity, and OOC of the final product.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph D

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

The University of Western Ontario

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Kamiab, Behzad

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Bassi, Amarjeet
• Charles Chunbao XU

• vegetable oils
• biobased complex esters
• transesterification
• hydrolysis-esterification
• epoxidation
• heterogeneous catalyst

Language dc:language.iso

en_ca

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/31748

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uwo.scholaris.ca:20.500.14721/31748