Better bean oil for biolubricants
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| Linxing Yao, Tong Wong, Earl Hammond, and Sriram Sundararajan review products of their biobased lubricant research |
Two food science researchers are collaborating with a mechanical engineering professor to understand the properties of biobased lubricants.
Earl Hammond, emeritus university professor, and Tong Wang, an associate professor, both in Food Science and human nutrition, are collaborating with Sriram Sundararajan, assistant professor of mechanical engineering.
"The ultimate goal is to modify soy oils to introduce new molecular structures that can be used as lubricants," Wang said. "We're using model systems to find molecules that work best." The research will help biologists modify plants to make oils with desirable structures and properties.
Researchers want a biobased lubricant with a low melting point; low oxidation, comparable to petroleum-based motor oil; and the right viscosity. Low oxidation and melting point are important to keep the oil from gelling or freezing, respectively. The right viscosity lets oil cling to parts without excessively increasing the resistance to flow.
Most oil molecules are straight-chain fatty acids -- carbon atoms linked in a line, Sundararajan said. Hammond and Wang, both affiliates of the centers for Designing Foods to Improve Nutrition and Crops Utilization Research, want to see if adding a branch, altering chain length or introducing unsaturation (so carbon atoms are linked by double bonds) in fatty acids creates favorable qualities.
Hammond recently found that branched fatty acids from lanolin have a relatively low melting point. He and Wang also are testing oleate esters -- fatty acids that have reacted with alcohols -- that could be used for lubricants or biodiesel.
Wang and Hammond synthesize the model oils and Sundararajan uses a device called a microtribometer to test them. The instrument has a sphere that slides against a flat surface under a controlled load in the presence of test lubricants. Engineers check the components for wear and monitor friction during experiments.
The research is making progress, Hammond said. "I think we can tell them that branched-chain fatty acids are capable of solving the melting point problem."
