The oil industry: moving forward

combination.

These include:

treatments.

Let’s first look at emissions, how it is being tackled, and what the results are as far as lubricants are concerned.

One of the main approaches is exhaust gas recirculation, with or without external cooling, but this approach has resulted in the formation of soot in the oil.

The treatment has been to use additives to disperse the soot, so the base oil maintains its lubricant qualities, but as engines become more advanced, so the treatment has become more and more complex.

The call for extended oil change periods is basically a question of simple economics; reducing the cost of ownership by cutting vehicle downtime for oil changes, and cutting the cost of disposal of used oil.

A number of approaches are being made to lower fuel consumption, in both petrol and diesel engines.

These include reducing the viscosity of the engine oil to reduce drag within the engine from the oil itself, and this is having very promising results. At the same time it carries its own challenges, not least of which is ensuring that the lower viscosity does not result in increased wear in the engine!

These challenges seem to have, for the time being, been overcome, but it’s something both engine designers and oil engineers have to keep a careful eye on.

At the same time these new oil technologies are pushing up the price of the engine oil.

Another related topic is the effect of friction modifiers on the new surface coatings being used in modern lightweight small-capacity engines. Finally, alternative fuels. A major impact of using ethanol based fuels is increased corrosion within the engine as alcohol-based fuels are hygroscopic, i.e. they readily attach to water.

However, these days most ethanolbased commercial fuels, or petrol containing some alcohol, also contain corrosion inhibitors.

In summary, the oil and lubricants industry is facing a continuous challenge to keep up with technology and the changes that this brings to the needs of internal combustion engines.

For the consumer, whether that be in the workshop scenario or the man changing his car’s oil in his home garage, the answer is clear; oil is still cheap compared to the cost of engine repair or replacement, and it is vital that the right oil is chosen to do the job the engine designers intended. Cheap can become very expensive! *Note: For more than 80 years Infineum has been a world-class formulator, manufacturer and marketer of petroleum additives. See more at www.infineum.com.