Halal Green from Plant-Based Product Perspective: Palm Oil as a Potential Source for Marine Engine Lubricant

Abstract

The green concept is the idea or the theory that harmony with the demand of Shariah, and therefore, it needs to be put into practice in the daily lives of every inhabitant on earth, including Muslims. Everyone can contribute and create impacts with their actions towards the environment; it may be good but also bad. As Muslims, it is part of their religious duties to make a good impact on the environment in general and the earth in particular. This research project is an attempt towards a halal green perspective of palm oil as a potential source of marine engine lubricant. This is because the Synthetization of Trimethylolpropane (TMP) esters derived from palm oil through transesterification has proven to be a suitable lubricant for industrial purposes. The lubricant displays good thermal and oxidative stability, a high viscosity index and, most importantly, good biodegradability. Thus, they are suitable for marine applications where environmental concerns are paramount due to oil spillage. However, the high requirement of lubricant properties due to extreme conditions for marine vehicles prevents the lubricant from being used for marine applications. Thus, this work aims to improve the important properties of TMP esters by blending them with synthetic marine engine oil. This will allow the TMP ester to achieve a higher kinematic viscosity, lower pour point and stronger wear prevention properties that are critical for applications in marine four-stroke engines while still retaining the biodegradability of the lubricant to some degree. The result obtained was a 40% TMP to 60% Synthetic Oil blend ratio that is most suitable to ensure maximised biodegradability potential without sacrificing engine performance.