The Effect of Surfactant in Lubrication

The Effect of Surfactant in Lubrication has been chosen as the title for final year
project. The main objective of this project is to find the alternatives to regenerate the
used lube oil so that the regenerated oil will have a middle quality between the new oil
and used one. Besides that it is necessary to study the can-be-measured chemical and
physical properties of the lube oil such as volatility, Total AcidNumber (TAN), density,
viscosity, detergency and dispersancy. The properties of used lube oil will be
determined and it will be compared to the properties ofnew lube.
Through out this project paper, the definition of lubrication and surfactant will be
defined in detail. It covered the principle of lubrication, explanations about the main
components exist in lubricant, the system of surfactant in lubrication, how the good
lubricant is defined and lastly the several alternatives to generate the used oil. Generally
there are two main methods to regenerate the used lube oil. First is by reconditioning
and second is by re-refining. Reconditioning is a mechanical separation to remove the
solid contaminant from the used oil. Meanwhile re-refining is a method which intent to
turn the used oil to the base oil.
To meet the project's objectives, 3 tests/experiments have been done to analyze the
properties of the lube oil. There are Total Acid Number (TAN) test, viscosity test and
density test. The methodology of the tests can be reviewed in Chapter 3. The 3 tests
were done onto 3 different types of lube oil (used and unused). According to the result
of the experiments, 2 samples indicate the viscosity and density of the lube oil will
decrease after being used. Meanwhile for the TAN test, 2 samples show the greater
value of used oil compared to unused.
The expected result for oil regeneration is the value of regenerated oil will lie
between the values of used's and unused's. However based on the tests done onto the
regenerated oil (mixture of used and unused oil), the result failed to develop a trend
which can be referred to. The failure perhaps because of error occurred during the
experiment, sample's problem and inappropriate test which under certain circumstances
the test can not detect the improvement/changeof the lube oil.