Emerging innovations and advances in lubricants are transforming operational and maintenance practices, as well as addressing growing environmental concerns.
Effective lubrication of machines and equipment helps reduce friction, prevents wear and tear, dissipates heat, and keeps contaminants out of sensitive machinery, prolonging equipment life, minimising downtime, and providing optimal operational efficiency.
The global industrial lubricants market is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.7 per cent, increasing in value to US$31.3 billion by the end of 2030.
Advances in lubricant technology have seen the integration of Internet of Things into lubrication processes, allowing for real-time monitoring and maintenance of critical components within engines and other machines.
Using sensors, smart lubrication systems can continuously monitor lubricant condition, temperature and wear, with data analytics providing accurate information on the health of the machine so that lubrication processes can be precisely calibrated. This opens up the potential for condition monitoring to be effectively undertaken through oil and vibration analysis, thermography, and other predictive maintenance methods.
A notable innovation is the use of capacitive sensing methods to enable the detection and analysis of wear debris in lubricants, allowing for the diagnosis and maintenance of essential components.
Research published in the Sensors journal validated the practicality and effectiveness of the sensor network through a series of experiments involving the introduction of debris into various media, such as water and lubricant oil.
The results conclusively showed that the capacitance value – or the measure of a component or circuit’s ability to collect and store an electric charge – had a nearly linear relationship with the increase in both the size and mass of abrasive particles.
Another area of research involves the use of nanoparticles as environmentally-friendly additives in lubricants. Having tribological properties such as high surface energy, as well as small particle size and thermal stability, nanoparticles can improve the anti-wear, anti-friction, and high compressibility characteristics of lubricants.
Applications of highly biodegradable lubricants are also being explored in services that may contain leak risks, as well as environmentally sensitive areas like platforms, agricultural equipment, and hydroelectric power plants.
Industrial lubricants are regulated based on demanding technical requirements and characteristics, according to a 2021 paper published in the Lubricants journal.
These include high viscosity index, hydraulic stability, corrosion prevention, thermal stability, wide operating temperature ranges, demulsibility (the ability of oil to separate from water), and oxidative stability. However, escalating environmental and sustainability concerns have shifted focus onto non-technical criteria for the evaluation of lubricants, such as biodegradability and sustainability.
The researchers said: “The growing environmental concern surrounding the potential pollution and contamination of ecosystems due to the spillage or leakage of lubricants has necessitated the development of renewable and biodegradable lubricants.
“Classifications such as environmentally friendly, environmentally acceptable, biodegradable, and non-toxic are high priority qualities to consider in today’s lubricant market as a precautionary measure against environmental contamination. “Spills and leakages are, practically speaking, unavoidable, and the rationale behind rapid biodegradation is to have a persistence in nature at the lowest toxicological level possible.”
They also noted that the European Ecolabel was becoming the most generally accepted label for environmentally acceptable lubricants, consisting of seven criteria encompassingbiodegradability, aquatic toxicity, bioaccumulation, and the presence of certain restricted substances.
Currently, the market for biodegradable lubricants is dominated by esters, but polyalkylene glycols and renewable hydrocarbons are increasing their share.
In the European Union, stringent regulations around the use of conventional mineral-oil based lubricants have created a sub-market of biodegradable lubricants with a more than 3.5 per cent market share.