Improving Fuel Economy/New Regulations - CRODA

[Solarent]

Presentation Slides

Event Recording

I attended this seminar last week by CRODA. I liked it because it talks in detail about the needs that formulators are facing with GF-6 and the requirement to produce better FM's which reduce wear in boundary and mixed lubrication conditions. its a little chemistry heavy, but if you are interested in some of the directions that the industry is going it's pretty good info.

Some highlights:

• Slide 9&10 - GF-6 Needs Statement & Key Changes
• Slide 17 - Stribeck Curve diagram showing engine components in each lubrication regime
• Slide 30 - Discussion on Polymeric Friction Modifiers
• Slide 41-50 - Friction Coefficient analysis of major oils, top treated with Polymeric Friction Modifiers

Basic summary: New thinner oils are going to require new FM's which focus on boundary lubrication - they have to work with existing technologies including ZDDP and MoDTC. The work that is being done now allows real fuel economy benefits by reducing friction in boundary and mixed lubrication regimes.

 

[bepperb]

Thanks, that was an interesting read. Granted it was from someone selling friction modifiers, but it certainly read as though they will likely play a larger role in friction reduction than lower viscosity. I also did not know the lower viscosity base stocks had more volatility, or that it was such a challenge to work with them.

 

[Solarent]

Fuel Economy Improvement and the related friction reduction is being tackled on two fronts - in the Hydrodynamic/Elasto-Hydrodynamic regime it is taken on by lighter viscosity base oils, which is very important for increasing fuel economy; - in the boundary and mixed regimes it will be these more effective friction modifiers. So I wouldn't say a larger role than viscosity, but definitely a larger role then they have previously played.

The volatility issue is a big one with lighter base oils - even with the problems with the NOACK tests, the interest in increasing ester content (as Molakule suggested when we were discussing the PQIA NOACK results) is gaining ground for many of the new xW16 formulations. I was happy with the detail the CRODA team put into that at the end.

 

[PandaBear]

Very interesting.

I noticed that their oil test slides of all sorts of oil, between 135C fresh and 135C 2hr film formation, the friction increased by quite a bit!

The only one that doesn't seem to increase much in friction is the Valvoline 10w30 (vs 5w30 Pennzoil and 5w20 Mobil1).

Is this the detergents vs friction debate?

 

[Solarent]

No this isn't really a factor of the detergents so much as it has to do with the mechanics of how the films are formed. The 2 hrs of film formation was done at moderate speeds and loads and then the measurements were taken (this was explained in more detail by the presenters).

The differences that these graphs are really showing is that the polymer FM's are more effective when used fresh then they are after the AW films have begun to form. (if you notice this trend is the same as the straight oil without the extra FM added - in blue on the graphs) In the presentation they hypothesized that the Valvoline oil formulation may not be as compatible with the Polymer FM's. It also may have to do with the impact of the 10W30 viscosity on the boundary conditions over the 5Wxx that was tested from the other companies.

 

[Shannow]

Excellent article, thankyou.

The seminar sounds much more interesting than "the financial sustainability of Asset Management", my last one.