Prospects of Non Edible Vegetable Oil as a Potential Resource for Biolubricant - A Review”

Increasing environmental pollution concerns and diminishing petroleum reserves has brought in attention towards the use of non edible vegetable oils as an alternative to petroleum oil based lubricants. Non edible vegetable oil plant contains high amount of oil in its seeds which can be converted into biolubricant. Biolubricant is a renewable lubricant that is biodegradable, non toxic and has a net zero greenhouse gases. There is a need to explore the possibility of using non edible varieties and their blends as biolubricant in order to achieve the twin objectives of reducing environmental and energy security of the country. Biolubricant have come a long way in recent years, and they are now capable of providing extremely low friction and wear coefficients under certain or highly controlled test conditions. Biolubricant from non edible vegetable oils have received considerable research attention in the last decades owing to their remarkable improved tribological characteristics. Yet full potential has not been explored for the biolubricant production. This paper is a review of non edible varieties of oils which can prove to be premium source of biolubricants emphasizing the benefits on the rural and urban economy. © 2012 Universal Research Publications. All rights reserved