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

与来自矿物油的同类产品相比，生物润滑剂在环境和技术上都具有优势。除了可再生外，它们还可以生物降解，挥发性排放更低，环境毒性也更低。它们提供卓越的抗磨保护，并表现出更低的可燃性。此外，生物润滑剂具有较低的摩擦系数，这使得使用生物润滑剂的设备的能源成本降低。虽然植物油被用于混合一些压力较小的润滑剂，但由于其组成脂肪酸的多不饱和度过高，其热稳定性对于大多数应用来说是不够的。鉴于传统精炼菜籽油的稳定性较差，润滑油调和商目前倾向于在生产压力较大的润滑油类型时使用可再生能源含量较高的合成酯；这种更昂贵的基础油目前阻碍了最终用户对生物润滑油的吸收。菜籽油具有许多物理化学性质，对于润滑油工业的基础油是有利的。然而，多不饱和脂肪酸的总含量仍然太高，由此产生的不稳定是其广泛使用的主要障碍。行业设定的目标是将多不饱和脂肪酸总量降低到5%以下，同时保持菜籽油的其他理想物理和化学性质。为了在经济上具有竞争力，可以容忍作物产量的一些损失和加工成本的增加，因为其市场上的主要竞争对手低多不饱和脂肪酸葵花籽油在商品市场上的价格目前高达每吨120美元。然而，我们提出的方法应该会导致完全发展的品种的产量损失很小，如果有的话。该项目的目的是支持油菜籽品种的开发，用于生产润滑油工业使用的油。一个关键的知识缺口是了解如何在不降低作物产油量的情况下大幅降低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)通过突变特定基因对油菜进行遗传改良，以便从高产的冬季作物中生产出多不饱和脂肪酸含量非常低的油。(B)评估所生产石油的物理性质，以确认其效用。(C)向养殖业提供具有特色的油菜品系，以开发品种。(D)促进供应链的组装。该策略是非转基因的，因此我们预计不会有任何障碍阻碍所产生的品种在英国的广泛应用。

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.