Greener grease

A team of researchers from the University of Huelva in Spain has developed environmentally-friendly lubricating grease based on ricin oil and cellulose derivatives.

’The objective of this research was to develop a product that could be used as a lubricating grease but that was made only from natural materials and was therefore 100 per cent biodegradable,’ said José María Franco, a chemical engineer at the University of Huelva.

Environmentally-friendly greases are ’oleogels’ that use cellulose derivatives from plants and ricin oil (from a bush in the Euphorbiaceae family) as a lubricant base. Franco said these new formulations are an alternative to traditional lubricating greases, which create pollution that is difficult to combat once discharged into the environment.

Lubricants used in industry are made from non-biodegradable components, such as synthetic oils or petroleum derivatives, and thickeners made with metallic soaps or polyurea derivatives (a family of synthetic polymers). These are currently the best performers, but they also present environmental problems.