Development of ecofriendly/biodegradable lubricants: An overview

Synthetic and vegetable oil based esters offer the best choice in formulating environment friendly lubricants. In the present review an attempt has been made to highlight some recent developments in the area of biodegradable synthetic ester base stocks for formulation of new generation lubricants including the efforts made so far at the author's laboratory in this direction. The developed products find applications in automotive transmission fluids, metal working fluids, cold rolling oils, fire resistant hydraulic fluids, industrial gear oils, neat cutting oils and automotive gear lubricants either alone or in formulations.