Hello All,
Someone asked about synthetic oil being made from vegetable oil. I found
a site quoting a NYTimes Article which is posted below from:
http://sierraactivist.org/library/990614/oil.html
Its not about synthetics at all but thought it was close enough to merit
a post.
Enjoy,
Richard Hoard
A Vegetable Oil for Engine Lubrication
New York Times - June 14, 1999Ê
By SABRA CHARTRAND
Efforts to make cars more environmentally sound have centered on designing
cleaner-running engines, and eliminating the need for gasoline in favor
of electricity. But presumably any car will still have an engine made up
of some moving metal parts, and that requires lubricants. Cars like trains,
lawn mowers or chain saws rely on petroleum-based motor oils. Which brings
those concerned about the environment right back to the drawing board.
Even an electric car may produce toxic waste from motor oil.
But James Lambert and Duane Johnson have developed an alternative. They
have patented a vegetable oil lubricant. Their invention can be circulated
in internal combustion engines, or sprayed in one-time applications like
those necessary for lubricating train rails.
The inventors, from Colorado Springs, Colo., plan for their lubricant
to be "a total replacement for current petroleum and vegetable-based
additives
to petroleum."
Years ago, car owners who changed their own oil could just dump a pan
of dirty black oil into the nearest sewer drain. Now that people understand
how toxic oil waste can be to soil, water, plants, animals and people,
used motor oil must be discarded carefully.
But other petroleum-based lubricants are still regularly dumped in the
open.
Some lubricants are also used in what the inventors identify as "total
loss applications." In those applications, oils are applied only once and
then thrown away. Trains use such oils, spewing huge amounts of petroleum
waste onto the ground.
"A train alone may consume five gallons of oil per 1,000 miles as the
oil is sprayed on the track to lubricate the wheels," the inventors write
in their patent. "This amounts to a total of 300,000 gallons annually being
discarded along railings within the U.S. alone."
Since the oils used in cars and on train rails are petroleum based,
they are not biodegradable. In addition, chemicals are usually added to
improve the consistency and performance of the oil. Of course, these oils
are distilled from crude petroleum, a nonrenewable natural resource.
Lambert and Johnson hope to eliminate concerns over motor oils altogether.
Their patent covers a vegetable oil lubricant they say is biodegradable
as well as more efficient at lubrication and heat transfer than
petroleum-based
oils. Their lubricant is made up of three elements: a base oil, an oil
made up of hydroxy fatty acids and an oil made up of vegetable or animal
waxes.
The patent stipulates that the base oil come from unrefined vegetable
oils like soybean, canola, rapeseed, crambe, safflower, or sunflower. The
inventors prefer to get their hydroxy fatty acids from castor, and their
waxes from jojoba, meadowfoam or lanolin. Natural anti-oxidants are also
present in the lubricant, and the inventors say that synthetic anti-oxidants
may also be added.
The patent, which belongs to the Agro Management Groupof Colorado
Springs, is 5,888,947.
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