Sesame Seed Oil as Industrial Lubricant
Marie Donlon | May 09, 2017In search of a sustainable and eco-friendly alternative to mineral oil as an industrial lubricant, researchers believe they have found the answer in sesame seed oil.
Because mineral oil is produced from fossil reserves of crude oil, researchers Sabarinath Sankaran Nair, Kumarapillai Prabhakaran Nair and Perikinalil Krishnan Rajendrakumar of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the National Institute of Technology, Calicut, Kerala, India, are researching possible alternatives that could be grown as crops to combat dwindling resources.
According to researchers, sesame seed oil had high viscosity and a better coefficient of friction when compared with coconut oil, sunflower oil and commercially-available mineral oil. Researchers also found that the oxidative stability of sesame oil is not as high as mineral oil, which might require additives or genetically-modified plants to improve oil stability.
"With further development, it can become an eco-friendly substitute for its mineral oil counterparts in [the] near future," the team concludes.
The study is published in the International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology.
You must stabilize the oil to auto-oxidation. It is suggested by me (based on experience with auto-oxidation of oils and waxes) that some natural molecule that mimics naphthenes or maybe the element selenium (in some sort of very dilute organo-metalloid that is a natural form of selenium that is less toxic to the body) could be a good starting point. The other options probably involve partial hydrogenation to remove as much olefinic character as possible without ruining low temperature performance.
Do not add halogen, Manganese (especially MnO4- ion), or other multi-valent metals.
It is possible to experiment with natural aromatic nitrogen compounds, however the toxicity is generally high.