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

美国国家科学基金会的PREMISE计划提供资金，用于研究用生物基（即植物衍生）润滑剂替代石油基润滑剂的相关问题。 这种方法似乎是一种有吸引力的材料替代品;生物润滑剂是可再生的，相对无毒，可生物降解，比石油润滑剂更容易提取和加工，对环境的影响更小。 然而，有三个方面的生物润滑剂的使用，必须进一步解决，以估计社会，环境和技术的好处和广泛使用这些替代品的影响：性能，监管和生命周期。 本研究将使用各种标准化的测试程序和数据来源，对这三个领域进行研究，并将结果与石油衍生润滑剂的类似信息进行比较。本研究涉及一个多学科小组的组装，该小组的成员来自学术界，政府和工业部门，拥有集体专业知识，以解决与生物和石油基润滑剂相关的各种问题。 该项目的主要目标是开始收集数据和将调查结果纳入对生物润滑剂作为石油产品替代材料的价值和成本的全面评估，并建立一个框架，将所获结果推广到具体应用。 如果可以证明生物润滑剂与目前使用的矿物油一样有效，具有成本竞争力，并且导致更少的环境问题，那么很可能可以将收集的大部分数据外推到各种工业应用中。 从

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