THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The College of Engineering, Trivandrum (CET), has obtained patent for developing a green cutting fluid that has the potential to reduce the country’s dependence on imported cutting fluid. The fluid developed by CET researchers can replace mineral oil-based cutting fluid commonly used in shaping machinery such as lathes, milling and drilling equipment.
The invention uses rice bran oil with several bioadditives like herbal oils to develop a sustainable product that is non-toxic and biodegradable. The green cutting fluid was developed by a team led by Dr Rani S, assistant professor, mechanical engineering department; Dr Muhammed Arif, associate professor, chemistry department; Sneha Edla and Ananthan D Thampi, research scholar, mechanical department; and Vishnu V S and Abhijith B K Pillai, M-Tech Scholars- Manufacturing and Automation.
The fluid was developed at the Advanced Tribology Research Centre of CET. “The green cutting fluid was developed keeping in mind the industry’s rapid shift towards sustainability and the need to develop new products by keeping a green approach in mind.
The use of herbal oils such as holy basil and clove oil in the present study has shown a significant improvement in the oxidation and corrosion stability of rice bran oil,” one of the researchers said. Presently, India produces one million tonnes of rice bran oil. If the country’s entire rice bran were to be used for oil production, the output could reach 1.6 million tonnes.
While interacting with the industry experts, it is understood that only 60% of the oil produced is used for edible purposes, the remaining 40% is used for local industrial application. Since India is a major importer of cutting fluid, it is imperative that a local cutting fluid with comparable properties to that of the imported products is developed. “The patent is for a period of 20 years. It has been awarded with effect from August 3, 2019 -- the date of filing the patent application,” said the researcher.
In the pipeline
In tune with the objective of ‘waste to energy’, researchers of CET’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Research (CCIR) are currently developing novel technologies to produce lubricants from various vegetable oils. The team is also attempting to address the waste disposal issue by recycling waste oil and plastic waste for developing industrial products. The researchers are working on two funded projects on high pressure bio-gas generation and tribo-electric nanogenerators.