A lubricant is a substance that helps to reduce friction between surfaces in mutual contact, which ultimately reduces the heat generated when the surfaces move. It may also have the function of transmitting forces, transporting foreign particles, or heating or cooling the surfaces. The property of reducing friction is known as lubricity.
Gasoline or petrol is a transparent, petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in most spark-ignited internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. On average, U.S. refineries produce, from a barrel of crude oil, about 19 to 20 gallons of gasoline; 11 to 13 gallons of distillate fuel most of which is sold as diesel fuel; and 3 to 4 gallons of jet fuel. The product ratio depends on the processing in an oil refinery and the crude oil assay.A barrel of oil is defined as holding 42 US gallons, which is about 159 liters or 35 imperial gallons.
Diesel fuel, also called diesel oil, is any liquid fuel specifically designed for use in a diesel engine, a type of internal combustion engine in which fuel ignition takes place without a spark as a result of compression of the inlet air and then injection of fuel. Therefore, diesel fuel needs good compression ignition characteristics.
Motor oil, engine oil, or engine lubricant is any one of various substances used for the lubrication of internal combustion engines. They typically consist of base oils enhanced with various additives, particularly antiwear additives, detergents, dispersants, and, for multi-grade oils, viscosity index improvers.. The main function of motor oil is to reduce friction and wear on moving parts and to clean the engine from sludge and varnish (detergents). It also neutralizes acids that originate from fuel and from oxidation of the lubricant (detergents), improves sealing of piston rings, and cools the engine by carrying heat away from moving parts.
A hydraulic fluid or hydraulic liquid is the medium by which power is transferred in hydraulic machinery. Common hydraulic fluids are based on mineral oil or water. Examples of equipment that might use hydraulic fluids are excavators and backhoes, hydraulic brakes, power steering systems, automatic transmissions, garbage trucks, aircraft flight control systems, lifts, and industrial machinery.
A catalytic converter is an exhaust emission control device that converts toxic gases and pollutants in exhaust gas from an internal combustion engine into less-toxic pollutants by catalyzing a redox reaction. Catalytic converters are usually used with internal combustion engines fueled by gasoline or diesel, including lean-burn engines, and sometimes on kerosene heaters and stoves.
Synthetic oil is a lubricant consisting of chemical compounds that are artificially made. Synthetic lubricants can be manufactured using chemically modified petroleum components rather than whole crude oil, but can also be synthesized from other raw materials. The base material, however, is still overwhelmingly crude oil that is distilled and then modified physically and chemically. The actual synthesis process and composition of additives is generally a commercial trade secret and will vary among producers.
Liquid fuels are combustible or energy-generating molecules that can be harnessed to create mechanical energy, usually producing kinetic energy; they also must take the shape of their container. It is the fumes of liquid fuels that are flammable instead of the fluid. Most liquid fuels in widespread use are derived from fossil fuels; however, there are several types, such as hydrogen fuel, ethanol, and biodiesel, which are also categorized as a liquid fuel. Many liquid fuels play a primary role in transportation and the economy.
Jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by gas-turbine engines. It is colorless to straw-colored in appearance. The most commonly used fuels for commercial aviation are Jet A and Jet A-1, which are produced to a standardized international specification. The only other jet fuel commonly used in civilian turbine-engine powered aviation is Jet B, which is used for its enhanced cold-weather performance.
Gear oil is a lubricant made specifically for transmissions, transfer cases, and differentials in automobiles, trucks, and other machinery. It is of a high viscosity and usually contains organosulfur compounds. Some modern automatic transaxles do not use a heavy oil at all but lubricate with the lower viscosity hydraulic fluid, which is available at pressure within the automatic transmission. Gear oils account for about 20% of the lubricant market.
AMSOIL Inc. is an American corporation based in Superior, Wisconsin that primarily formulates and packages synthetic lubricants, fuel additives, and filters. Company founder Albert J. Amatuzio developed several synthetic motor oil formulations throughout the mid-to-late 1960s. He was commercially selling synthetic motor oil by 1968. In 1972, AMSOIL 10W-40 Synthetic Motor Oil became the world's first synthetic motor oil to meet American Petroleum Institute requirements, which prompted the company to adopt "The First in Synthetics®" as its tagline. The company introduced several other synthetic lubricants that represented industry firsts throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. It distributes products in North America via a network of independent dealers following a direct-marketing business model.
API TC is a certification for two-stroke oils, awarded by the American Petroleum Institute. It is given after the product passes through stringent tests that determine the level of detergent performance, dispersion, and anti-oxidation. It is the only remaining, not revoked classification of the API Two-Cycle motor oil specifications. Being a very old standard itself, most currently produced 2T lubricants meet its specifications, even the lowest quality ones; current high-quality oils exceed them.
Two-stroke oil is a special type of motor oil intended for use in crankcase compression two-stroke engines.
Dexron is the trade name for a group of technical specifications of automatic transmission fluid (ATF) created by General Motors (GM). The name is a registered trademark of GM, which licenses the name and specifications to companies which manufacture the fluid and sell it under their own brand names. Not all Dexron fluids are licensed for reselling under another brand name. All licensed Dexron fluids must have a license number that begins with the letters B through J. If no license number or "Dexron Approved" logo is found on the container, the fluid may not be GM approved and the fluid cannot be guaranteed to meet GM specifications. Like many automobile manufacturers, GM uses transmissions sourced from other suppliers or transmission manufacturers around the world. These transmissions are not manufactured by GM. Many of these automatic transmissions use unique fluids that might not be shown on this page.
Extreme pressure additives, or EP additives, are additives for lubricants with a role to decrease wear of the parts of the gears exposed to very high pressures. They are also added to cutting fluids for machining of metals.
Zinc dialkyldithiophosphates are a family of coordination compounds developed in the 1940s that feature zinc bound to the anion of a dialkyldithiophosphoric acid. These uncharged compounds are not salts. They are soluble in nonpolar solvents, and the longer-chain derivatives easily dissolve in mineral and synthetic oils used as lubricants. They come under CAS number 68649-42-3. In aftermarket oil additives, the percentage of ZDDP ranges approximately between 2 and 15%. Zinc dithiophosphates have many names, including ZDDP, ZnDTP, and ZDP.
Oil additives are chemical compounds that improve the lubricant performance of base oil. The manufacturer of many different oils can utilize the same base stock for each formulation and can choose different additives for each specific application. Additives comprise up to 5% by weight of some oils.
Automotive oil recycling involves the recycling of used oils and the creation of new products from the recycled oils, and includes the recycling of motor oil and hydraulic oil. Oil recycling also benefits the environment: increased opportunities for consumers to recycle oil lessens the likelihood of used oil being dumped on lands and in waterways. For example, one gallon of motor oil dumped into waterways has the potential to pollute one million gallons of water.
Base oils are used to manufacture products including lubricating greases, motor oil and metal processing fluids. Different products require different compositions and properties in the oil. One of the most important factors is the liquid’s viscosity at various temperatures. Whether or not a crude oil is suitable to be made into a base oil is determined by the concentration of base oil molecules as well as how easily these can be extracted.
SAE J300 is a standard that defines the viscometric properties of mono- and multigrade engine oils, maintained by SAE International. Key parameters for engine oil viscometrics are the oil's kinematic viscosity, its high temperature-high shear viscosity measured by the tapered bearing simulator, and low temperature properties measured by the cold-cranking simulator and mini-rotary viscometer. This standard is commonly used throughout the world, and standards organizations that do so include API and ILSAC, and ACEA.
