An attempt to improve the poor performance characteristics of coconut oil for industrial lubricants

Abstract

Coconut oil is used as the base fluid for metal cutting applications because of its high natural properties compared to other vegetable oils. The major hindrances to extensive utilization of coconut oil compared to mineral oils for various metal cutting operations are its high pour point, low oxidation and thermal stability therefore further improvement in these aspects is much-needed. In this work, a systematic approach to improve the cold flow behavior, oxidation and thermal stability of the coconut oil by the combination of chemical additive i.e 2,6 Di-tetra butyl phenol and diluents such as Poly alpha olefin4(PAO4), Poly (Ethylene co-vinyl acetate) (PPD) has been carried out. Based on the obtained results an improvement of cold flow behavior (least pour point) was observed with the addition of PAO4 and PPD with varying weight percentage combinations. Apart from this addition of 2, 6 Di-tetra butyl phenol as anti-oxidant (AO) in various weight percentage has led to an improvement of oxidation and thermal stability to the primarily modified coconut oil.