Obtenção e caracterização do óleo da oiticica (Licania rígida) para uso como biolubrificante

Abstract

Lubricating oils are usually produced from non-renewable resources such as petroleum. These lubricants have additives that their properties are improved and suitable for specific applications which increases the production cost of high power of environmental degradation due to its incorrect disposal. In order to reduce environmental impacts and high cost of production of lubricating oils, studies were developed focused on the bio-lubricants derived from oil which have large production potential in Brazil, in addition to reducing the environmental impact by being a biodegradable oil. Lubrication is of great importance for the industrial sector, it contributes to increase the life cycle of the mechanical components of medium and large equipment reducing excessive wear between parts with relative movement between itself and the cooling of the components. The vegetable oil produced from the fruit of the myrtle plant (rigid Licania) of Chrysobalanaceae family, found in the caatinga vegetation, is an alternative for use as biolubrificante due to its low cost and easy extraction. In this work, methods of mechanical and chemical extraction were used for subsequent physical and chemical analysis and other operating parameters that must exist for the proper functioning of a lubricating oil. It was observed that the mechanical extraction method was more effective as the speed of production, but the chemical extraction showed a higher yield compared to vegetable mass and volume of produced oil. The values of the physico-chemical properties oiticica oil for both extractions performed similar, then both methods can be used to obtain oiticica oil without worrying about significant changes in key properties expected for vegetable lubricating oil. The performance tests as conductivity and thermal resistivity showed higher values in comparison with the commercial oil, thus proving that the vegetable oil has an improved cooling capacity compared to the commercial oil. The wear analysis proved that the power of oiticica oil lubrication was higher than the commercial oil.