Reducing the carbon footprint of the lubricants industry by the substitution of mineral oil with rapeseed oil (RM062/LK0843)

与从矿物油中提取的同类产品相比，生物润滑油具有环境和技术优势。除了可再生外，它们是可生物降解的，具有较低的挥发性排放和低环境毒性。它们提供卓越的抗磨损保护，并降低了可燃性。此外，生物润滑剂具有较低的摩擦系数，从而降低了使用生物润滑剂的设备的能源成本。虽然植物油用于混合一些压力较小的润滑剂，但由于其组成脂肪酸存在过度的多不饱和，它们的热稳定性对大多数应用来说是不够的。鉴于常规精制菜籽油稳定性差，润滑油混合剂目前倾向于采用可再生能源含量高的合成酯类生产应力较大的润滑油类型；这种更昂贵的基础油目前抑制了最终用户对生物润滑油的吸收。菜籽油具有许多物理和化学性质，有利于作为润滑油工业的基础油。然而，多不饱和脂肪酸的总含量仍然太高，由此产生的不稳定性是其广泛使用的主要障碍。业界设定的目标是将总pufa减少到5%以下，同时保留菜籽油的其他理想物理和化学特性。为了在经济上具有竞争力，作物的一些产量损失和加工成本的增加是可以容忍的，因为其在市场上的主要竞争对手，低PUFA葵花籽油，目前在商品市场上的价格高达每吨120美元。尽管如此，我们提出的方法应该导致很少，如果有的话，产量损失从充分发展的品种。该项目的目的是支持开发用于生产润滑油工业用油的油菜品种。一个关键的知识缺口是如何在不降低作物产量的情况下大幅减少菜籽油中多不饱和脂肪酸的含量。我们将解决这一知识差距，并建立一个封闭的供应链。这涉及：(a)通过诱变特定基因对油菜进行遗传改良，以便从一种高产的冬季作物中生产多不饱和脂肪酸含量极低的油。(b)评价所采石油的物理性质，以证实其效用。(c)向育种业提供有特色的油菜品系，以发展栽培品种。(d)促进供应链的组装。该策略是非转基因的，因此我们预计在英国广泛利用由此产生的品种没有障碍。

Bio-lubricants have both environmental and technical advantages over their counterparts derived from mineral oils. In addition to being renewable, they are biodegradable, have lower volatile emissions and low environmental toxicity. They provide superior anti-wear protection and exhibit reduced combustibility. In addition, bio-lubricants have lower coefficients of friction, which results in reduced energy costs for equipment in which bio-lubricants as used. Although vegetable oils are used in blending some less stressed lubricants, their thermal stability is inadequate for the majority of applications as a consequence of the presence of excessive polyunsaturation of their constituent fatty acids. In view of the poor stability of conventional refined rapeseed oil, lubricant blenders currently favour the use of synthetic esters with a high renewables content of the production of the more stressed lubricant types; this more expensive base oil currently inhibits uptake of bio-lubricants by end users. Rapeseed oil has many physical and chemical properties that are advantageous for base oil for the lubricants industry. However, the total content of polyunsaturated fatty acids remains too high and the resulting instability is the principal barrier to its widespread use. The target set by the industry is reduction to less than 5% total PUFAs, whilst retaining the other desirable physical and chemical properties of rapeseed oil. To be economically competitive, some yield penalty in the crop and increased processing costs can be tolerated, as its principal competitor in the market place, low PUFA sunflower oil, is presently priced at up to $120/tonne more on the commodity markets. Nevertheless, the approaches we propose should result in little, if any, yield loss from fully developed varieties. The purpose of the project is to underpin the development of oilseed rape varieties for the production of oil for use in the lubricants industry. A key knowledge gap is an understanding of how to substantially reduce the content of polyunsaturated fatty acids in rapeseed oil without reducing the oil yield of the crop. We will address this knowledge gap and enable establishment of a closed supply chain. This involves: (a) The genetic improvement of oilseed rape by mutagenesis of specific genes in order to produce, from a high-yielding winter crop, oil very low in polyunsaturated fatty acids. (b) Assessment of the physical properties of the oil produced in order to validate its utility. (c) Provision of characterised oilseed rape lines to the breeding industry for the development of cultivars. (d) Catalysing assembly of a supply chain. The strategy is non-GM, so we anticipate no barriers to the widespread utilization of the resultant varieties in the UK.