Development of Environmentally Acceptable Lubricants for Hydro-power Applications

The Department of Energy’s aim is developing environmentally acceptable lubricants for hydropower applications specifically to reduce environmental impacts of hydropower development and operations.By developing and implementing these environmentally acceptable lubricants in hydropower operations, it minimizes the impacts caused by leakage, spillage or accidental release into the water.The overall objective is to develop the next generation of lubricants that are safe, biodegradable, minimally toxic and no bioaccumulation.This requires base oil that is safe, non-toxic and biodegradable, and also selective additives which are high performing and non-toxic.A proper combination of a suitable and thermally stable biodegradable base oil and required and safer additives with optimized treat levels for each additive provides the optimal performance.Polnox has recently developed a high performing technologically advanced multifunctional and safer additive (McIn™ multifunctional corrosion inhibitor) and an anti-oxidant (DT-mPM™ Dual type moiety per molecule) that are suitable for EAL formulations.The multifunctional additive (McIn™) is unique that replaces four essential additives required during formulation.Polnox is now developing new environmentally acceptable lubricants for hydropower applications using highly stable biodegradable oils and carefully selected safer additives to meet the specification required for hydroelectric power operations.Not all biodegradable oils are qualified to meet the required thermo-oxidative stability characteristics for hydropower operations.During Phase I Polnox has successfully formulated and tested superior biodegradable environmentally acceptable lubricants to meet the primary requirement specifications listed by United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).Some of the properties of the formulated sample exceed the expectation.During Phase II, Polnox will continue to develop formulations and scale-up to meet both primary and secondary attributes for hydropower applications using Polnox technology-based additives and other safer additives to replace environmentally unsafe hydropower lubricants so that aquatic life and water systems are clean and safe.