Vegetable Oils During The Industrial Revolution

Vegetable oils, such as olive oil, were the dominant lubricants from as early as 1650BC until the introduction of petroleum based mineral oil in mid-1800s [Yao (2009)]. Later, the industrial revolution led to rapid and impressive development and production of automobiles, which greatly increased the market demand for lubricants. Low- priced mineral oil was more thermally and oxidatively stable than vegetable oils, and it has dominated the lubricant market since then [Scott (2003)]. Meanwhile, significant effort was devoted in developing synthetic oils with improved properties. Synthetic oils based only on hydrocarbons were introduced in the 1870s. These “tailor-made’ synthetic oils had a superior performance compared to vegetable oil or petroleum based mineral oil, but they

From the first century A.D., animal fats and vegetable oils were the principal lubricants used in machinery such as lathes, pulleys, gears. During the period of industrial revolution around 1760, heavy industrial iron and steel machinery, was widely introduced. Animal oils such as sperm whale oil and vegetable oil from sources such as palm and groundnut oil saw increased use as lubricants. At the same time, mineral oil obtained from the distillation of coal, was developed for use as a lubricant. In the 1850s, small quantities of petroleum oil were produced in United States, Canada, Russia and Romania. Petroleum production, from oil wells in the United States, increased substantially by the 1880. Even with just a small market share, rapeseed oil, crambe oil, castor oil, palm oil, lard, and marine oils found specific application in certain lubrication areas. Only a few oils, such as rapeseed and high-oleic oil, were used as base oils for lubricants until the early 1990s. Subsequently, mineral oils accounted the greatest proportion of lubricant base oils. Erhan et