Translating Academic Discoveries in Radical-Trapping Antioxidant Chemistry to Commercial Technology Development

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Hydrocarbon autoxidation is a spontaneous process that limits the longevity of living matter and the products made from the fossil fuels that derive therefrom. Antioxidants are added to essentially all hydrocarbon-based products to slow their degradation via autoxidation. A particularly important application of antioxidants is in engine lubricants. The high-temperatures and pressures to which lubricants are exposed during engine operation greatly facilitates their oxidative degradation. Ever increasing fuel economy standards and growing awareness that we must minimize fossil fuel consumption necessitates improvements in antioxidant technology, which has remained largely unchanged for 50 years. Exciting discoveries in the Pratt laboratory at the University of Ottawa have the potential to address this need. Translation of these discoveries to commercial products would be enabled by improved methods to assess efficacy in test formulations where interactions with other lubricant components could be rapidly identified and optimized. Likewise, means to monitor the fate of the antioxidants under operating conditions would provide insights on structural modifications that maximize antioxidant lifetime. This proposal aims to validate chemical tools that will enable the development of the next generation of antioxidants. The proposed partnership with Petro-Canada Lubricants (PCL) and Infineum International (Infineum) provides the ideal platform for translation. PCL is Canada's largest supplier of finished lubricants, which are prepared by blending the highly refined base oils they produce in Mississauga with mixtures of antioxidants and other additives. Infineum is one of the world's leading formulators, manufacturers and marketers of fuel and lubricant additives, and supply PCL with additive packages used in their heavy duty diesel engine oils, passenger car motor oils and automatic transmission fluids. Infineum has the know-how and resources to translate discoveries made in the Pratt laboratory to products that can be incorporated into the next generation of PCL products, providing not only economic benefits to Canada, but also contributing to reduced consumption of fossil fuel-derived products here and around the world.