Environmentally friendly grease composition

Abstract

An environmentally friendly grease composition is provided comprising (a) a vegetable oil and (b) a cellulose fiber. The grease may further comprise glycerin; a rust inhibitor; and / or a fatty acid ester, lecithin, phosphatidyl choline, or a combination thereof.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional application 60 / 542,189, filed on Feb. 5, 2004, which is incorporated herein by reference.STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT [0002] Not applicable INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC [0003] Not applicable SEQUENCE LISTING [0004] Not applicable FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0005] The present invention relates to environmentally friendly grease compositions. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0006] The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM D288 standard definition of the terms relating to petroleum) defines a lubricating grease as a solid to semi-fluid product of dispersion comprising a thickening agent and a liquid lubricant. The liquid lubricant is often a non-polar liquid oil, and the thickening agent is often a polar paste, which is usually a soap comprised of a metal reacted or complexed with a fatty acid. Other ingredien...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Lubricating greases are generally lost to the environment rather than being recycled or reused.

This loss of lubricating greases is deleterious to the environment, in part because of the toxicity of the metals that comprise the soap.

Although some metals used in the thickening agent can also be relatively environmentally benign (for example, if the metal is calcium or sodium), the alkalinity of the associated polar compounds is often lethal to beneficial microorganisms.

Consequently, greases often do not pass environmental persistence testing and thus are not considered to be environmentally friendly.

The food industry is another area in which toxic greases are a problem.

Attempts to formulate environmentally friendly, non-toxic lubricating greases have been deficient.

Because of the relative hardness of the inorganic compound, however, the lubricating properties of the greases are limited.

Although the study discloses acceptable lubrication performance characteristics in bearing applications, there is no specific disclosure regarding the biodegradability performance.

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