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

与矿物油相比，生物润滑剂具有环境和技术优势。除了可再生之外，它们还可生物降解，挥发性排放量较低，对环境的毒性较低。它们提供了上级抗磨保护，并表现出降低的可燃性。此外，生物润滑剂具有较低的摩擦系数，这导致使用生物润滑剂的设备的能量成本降低。虽然植物油用于混合一些应力较小的润滑剂，但由于其组成脂肪酸存在过多的多不饱和度，因此其热稳定性对于大多数应用而言是不足的。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使用具有高可再生物质含量的合成酯来生产压力更大的润滑油类型;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，这些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，由此产生的不稳定性是其广泛使用的主要障碍。行业设定的目标是将PUFA总量减少到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增加的加工成本是可以容忍的，因为其在市场上的主要竞争对手，低PUFA向日葵籽油，目前在商品市场上的价格高达120美元/吨。尽管如此，我们提出的方法应该导致很少，如果有的话，从充分发展的品种的产量损失。该项目的目的是支持油菜品种的开发，以生产润滑油工业所用的油。一个关键的知识差距是了解如何在不降低作物出油率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，并建立封闭的供应链。这包括：（a）通过对特定基因进行诱变，对油菜进行遗传改良，以便从高产冬季作物中生产多不饱和脂肪酸含量极低的油。(b)对所产石油的物理性质进行评估，以验证其效用。(c)向育种行业提供具有特征的油菜品系，以开发品种。(d)催化供应链的组装。该战略是非转基因的，因此我们预计在英国广泛使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.