The road to carbon reduction of lubricants under the background of "dual carbon"(3)

Low-carbon production process

Low-carbon lubricants mainly use blending processes, and the devices used include tank and pipeline blending equipment. The blending process includes raw material feeding, heating, stirring, etc. The production process of grease is slightly more complicated than that of lubricating oil. The production process includes thickener preparation, dispersion, cooling and post-treatment. In general, the production process of lubricating oil and grease is relatively simple. Reducing carbon emissions during the production process is mainly to improve production efficiency and optimize process control. In addition, the use of off-grid green electricity produced by the factory is also an important way to reduce carbon emissions.

Waste lubricant recycling

Currently, the recycling of waste lubricants is mainly the regeneration of waste lubricating oils. Regeneration process technologies include pickling, solvent refining, adsorption, hydrogenation refining, membrane separation, etc. At present, my country has established some waste lubricating oil management systems and relevant standards and specifications, but there are still problems such as inadequate supervision of waste lubricating oil from non-industrial sources and the long history of the formulation of some standards and specifications. Attention should also be paid to recycling management, environmental protection, economic costs and other aspects. At the same time, according to the current quality and industry recognition of recycled lubricating oil, it is necessary to further improve the quality and adopt a targeted use method.

In short, there are many ways to reduce the "carbon content" of lubricant production raw materials, base oils and additives at different stages of economic development; the carbon emissions and pollutant emissions generated by the lubricant production process mainly based on physical methods are also lower than those of general petrochemical enterprises. The lubricant industry should strengthen green and low-carbon research on the entire supply chain, formulate relevant verification and accounting standards, and strengthen the carbon footprint accounting of various lubricant products to promote the green and sustainable development of the industry.

Lubricants can develop energy-saving and carbon-reducing performance

In addition to supporting green and low-carbon energy equipment, lubricants can also develop energy-saving and carbon-reducing performance. In a broad sense, it is the performance that allows the equipment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; in a narrow sense, it is the performance of reducing equipment energy consumption by reducing friction.

There are many types of lubricants. So far, the most important energy-saving and carbon-reducing performance is internal combustion engine oil, especially gasoline engine oil. According to research, friction consumes 22% of the indicated power of internal combustion engines. Therefore, for many years, the automobile and oil industries have jointly studied the use of low-friction gasoline engine oil to improve the fuel economy of passenger cars. Based on the principle of tribology, to develop low-friction engine lubricants, the lubricants need to maintain a low friction coefficient under different engine operating conditions. The engine has multiple friction pairs. To reduce the friction coefficient of the engine lubricant, it is necessary to lubricate each friction pair as much as possible in the appropriate area of ​​mixed lubrication (partial fluid lubrication and partial boundary lubrication). The lubricant first reduces the viscosity to reduce the internal friction and develop the fluid dynamic pressure lubrication mode towards mixed lubrication. The viscosity cannot be reduced too low, otherwise the excessive proportion of boundary lubrication will also increase the friction coefficient. Additives will form adsorption or chemical reaction films on the friction surface. The friction coefficients of different films are different, so friction-reducing additives must also be added to gasoline engine oil.

To develop fuel-efficient lubricants, it is necessary to first establish a recognized fuel economy standard assessment test method. As early as 1983, the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) developed a test method using a whole vehicle (five-vehicle test method), and in 1988, it issued the engine test method procedure VI, which later developed into a series of standards for the procedure VI that are constantly upgraded. The latest one is procedure VIF, which is used for the latest gasoline engine oil specification GF-6.

At present, the diesel engine oil field is focusing on the establishment of a fuel economy assessment method, but it has not yet been issued. The fuel economy test methods in the fields of transmission oil and grease are all in the research stage, and there is no recognized standard test method. Therefore, there is still a lot of research work to be done to develop products that are recognized to have energy-saving and carbon-reducing performance.