The dilution of biogenic fuels into lubricating engine oils often leads to a shortening of the recommended oil drains (between 30% and 60%) and an increase in wear. The large number of overlapping and influencing factors, of which dilution and polymerization of fuel components in the engine oil are emphasised, makes it difficult to find a uniform solution to prevent failures in the various applications.
Insofar single solutions for the different types of biofuels are needed. The contribution of base oil chemistry and additives as well as triboactive materials is featured to deal with the adverse effects of biofuels. In the frame of the European Commission (EC)-funded project 'cleanengine', tentative engine oils based on esters with a content of renewables and polyglycols are formulated to increase the lubricant's tolerance in engines fuelled with biofuel-based blends, with the aim of ensuring required lubricating and wear protection performance while keeping oil drain intervals unchanged.
The present paper focuses on four-stroke diesel applications, fuelled by biodiesel (fatty acid methyl ester — FAME) as well as by rapeseed oil and Jatropha oil (pure vegetable oils, triglycerides), together with relevant blends of those biofuels and conventional diesel fuel.
This paper screens the functional profile (in particular rheological, toxicological, bio-compatibility, tribological and biofuels affinity) of lube families with respect to biofuel contamination. Moreover, this is followed by the contributions of piston ring and liner materials as well as thin film coatings.
The use of alternative base oils, like esters or polyglycols, with more intrinsic properties for the lubrication of automobile engines has a potential for ecological and technical advantages. Being in competition with hydrocarbon-based formulations, detailed knowledge of several thermophysical and viscometric properties as well as tribological properties over a large temperature range are required (mapping). The tested polymer-free polyglycols and ester-based formulations displayed no visible tribological weaknesses regarding wear resistance and EP-behavior as well as offering significant advantages in order to meet metal- and ash-free and bio-no-tox criteria. Especially the formulated polyglycols without friction modifiers also showed an intrinsic retention of low coefficients of friction and a hydrodynamic film forming behavior comparable to hydrocarbon-based factory-fill oils. The wear resistance and EP-behavior of low-additivated polyglycols, but also of esters, can be enhanced by means of triboactive materials. Lubricious oxides or triboactive materials and polar base oils, or a combination thereof, may substitute the EP and AW properties realized by the additives, thus enabling long drains and responding to eco-tox or bio-no-tox requirements as well as restrictions from the chemical box.
The use of alternative oils for the lubrication of automobile engines has a potential of ecological and technical advantages. It requires the detailed knowledge of several thermophysical and viscometric properties in a large temperature range (mapping). Therefore, the following properties of up to twenty-eight different oils have been measured in the temperature range from 22 °C to 150 °C: density, heat capacity, thermal conductivity, viscosity at ambient pressure, viscosity under shear rates above 10 6 s-1, and the viscosity at elevated pressures (maximum 100 MPa). The last two have been measured with a substantially improved and a newly developed apparatus, respectively. The pressure- viscosity coefficient has been measured on four hydrocarbon-based, factory-fill oils, a paraffin oil and twenty-three alternative oils. Nine of the alternative oils are based partly or completely on esters, the other fourteen on polyglycols, two of them additionally on water.