Lubricants based on renewable resources – an environmentally compatible alternative to mineral oil products

The development of lubricants like, e.g. engine and hydraulic oils was traditionally based on mineral oil as a base fluid. This fact is related to the good technical properties and the reasonable price of mineral oils. The Report to the Club of Rome (W.W. Behrens III, D.H. Meadows, D.I. Meadows, J. Randers, The limits of growth, A Report to the Club of Rome, 1972) and the two oil crises of 1979 and 1983, however, elucidated that mineral oil is on principle a limited resource. In addition, environmental problems associated with the production and use of chemicals and the limited capacity of nature to tolerate pollution became obvious (G.H. Brundtland, et al., in: Hauff, Volker (Ed.), World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED), Report of the Brundtland-Commission, Oxford, UK, 1987), and the critical discussion included besides acid rain, smog, heavy metals, and pesticides also mineral oil (especially oil spills like the case Exxon Valdes). A disadvantage of mineral oil is its poor biodegradability and thus its potential for long-term pollution of the environment. From the early development of lubricants for special applications (e.g. turbojet engine oils) it was known, that fatty acid polyol esters have comparable or even better technical properties than mineral oil. Subsequently, innumerable synthetic esters have been synthesized by systematic variation of the fatty acid and the alcohol components. Whereas the alcohol moiety of the synthetic esters are usually of petrochemical origin, the fatty acids are almost exclusively based on renewable resources. The physico-chemical properties of oleochemical esters can cover the complete spectrum of technical requirements for the development of high-performance industrial oils and lubricants (e.g. excellent lubricating properties, good heat stability, high viscosity index, low volatility and superior shear stability). For a comprehensive review of their technical properties see F. Bongardt, in: Jahrbuchfür Praktiker, H. Ziolkowsky (Ed.), Verlag für chemische Industrie GmbH, 1996, pp. 348–361. This article will focus on the ecological properties of oleochemical (synthetic) esters. The environmental relevance of oleochemicals in comparison to petrochemicals is discussed, and then the principles of an ecological assessment are described. The ecotoxicological properties and the biodegradability of oleochemical esters are presented. Finally, the ecological properties of the oleochemical esters are discussed with regard to existing environmental classification and labeling systems.