PREMISE: Comparative Life Cycle Impacts of Bio- and Petro-Based Lubricants

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This grant the National Science Foundation's PREMISE program provides funds to examine issues associated with the substitution of petroleum-based lubricants with bio-based (i.e. plant-derived) lubricants for industrial applications. Such an approach would appear to be an attractive material substitution; biolubricants are renewable, relatively nontoxic, biodegradable, and more easily extracted and processed than petrolubricants, with fewer environmental consequences. There are, however, three aspects of the use of biolubricants that must be addressed further in order to estimate the societal, environmental, and technological benefits and impacts of the widespread use of these substitutes: performance, regulatory, and life cycle. Using a variety of standardized testing procedures and data sources, this research will examine these three areas, comparing results with similar information for petroleum-derived lubricants.This research involves the assembly of a multidisciplinary group with members from academia, government, and the industrial sector, that possesses the collective expertise to address the diverse issues associated with bio- and petro-based lubricants. The main goals of the project are to begin the process of gathering data and integrating findings into a comprehensive assessment of the value and costs of biolubricants as replacement materials for petroleum-based products, and to establish a framework for extending the results obtained to specific applications. If it can be shown that biolubricants are as effective as mineral oils currently being used, are cost competitive, and result in fewer environmental problems, it is probable that much of the data collected can be extrapolated to a variety of industrial applications. from