Synthetic lubricant base lustock

Abstract

Conventional lubricants are formulated using mineral base stocks, which are refined from petroleum and contain many chemical species. Although mineral base stocks serve general-purpose lubricants well, they cannot be optimized for specific performance features. Modern machines and equipment are increasingly designed to operate under more severe conditions, to require less maintenance, to have improved longevity and better energy efficiency. Sometimes, conventional lubricants based on mineral base stocks fail to meet these elevated performance requirements. Synthetic lubricants using tailored synthetic base stocks are designed to meet these higher performance needs and can provide superior performance and economic benefits over conventional lubricants. In this chapter, we briefly discuss the history of synthetic lubricant development to understand the fundamental driving forces behind the use of synthetic lubricants, which have synthetic base stocks as the main components. The major part of the chapter is devoted to discussing the key synthetic base stocks, polyalphaolefins (PAO), esters and polyalkyleneglycols (PAG) – their chemistries, manufacturing processes, product properties, performance features, major applications and advantages compared with mineral base stocks. Additional discussions on less widely used synthetic base stocks, such as alkylaromatics, polyisobutylene and phosphate esters, are briefly reviewed for completeness.