Comparison of some characteristic properties of mineral based hydraulic oils against to environmentally friendly hydraulic oils produced from renewable sources

Lubricants' main agent is called base oil and any lubricant contains about 90-99% of base oils and the other part is additives. Today, many modern powerful machines are controlled by hydraulic mechanism either partially or fully. Products in the lubrication industry have been pushed to be more ecologically and environmentally friendly with increasing attention to environmental issues. In Turkey, only mineral-based hydraulic system oils are produced and consumed. Conversely, production of bio-based hydraulic system oils is not done. However, bio-based hydraulic fluids have some better properties in spite of mineral-based hydraulic fluids. Bio-based oils' some properties are superior than mineral oils. Such as; environmentally friendly, biodegradable, good tribological properties, high viscosity index, high flash point, high burning point, low friction coefficient, low volatility, classified as low water pollution, and also they have sustainable source. Additionally, bio-based hydraulic fluids are more economical, approximately 10%, than mineral-based hydraulic fluids. For this purpose, soybean, sunflower, nuts, canola oil can be used that are grown in Turkey conditions. In this thesis, petroleum-based mineral oils and environmentally friendly bio-based oils were used for producing of hydraulic system oils and these products' characteristic properties were compared with each other. Sunflower oil, hazelnut oil, and soybean oil were used for the production of bio-based hydraulic fluids. The characteristic features of these oils, for instance, density, kinematic viscosity, viscosity index, flash point, pour point, colour, copper strip corrosion, total acid number, total base number, demulsibility properties were identified by using ASTM-American Standards for Testing Methods. According to test results, the bio-based products can be used in industry. Some of the products are suitable for TSE 32 hydraulic oil and some of them are suitable for TSE 46 hydraulic oil.