Growing environmental awareness, our vulnerability to unexpected supply of foreign petroleum, concerns of economic security, and more stringent regulations regarding petroleum products use have spurred renewed interest in vegetable oil lubricants.  Vegetable oils are obtained from renewable resources and are biodegradable.  Thus, they offer specific environmental and economic sustainability benefits over mineral oil-based lubricants.  In addition to these benefits, vegetable oils also have certain performance advantages over conventional mineral oil base stocks.  These include low volatility, high flash points, super high viscosity index, and excellent lubricity.  Since 1991, Renewable Lubricants, Inc. (RLI) has pioneered an extensive research and development program of vegetable oil-based (biobased) lubricants.  The project’s overwhelming success is due in part to the collaborations of the Department of Defense, Department of Interior, Department of Energy, Department of Agriculture, Concurrent Technology Corporation, United Soybean Board, Dow AgroSciences, Lubrizol, Ohio Soybean Council, National and Ohio Corn Growers Associations, Penn State University, University of Lincoln Nebraska, and Chevron Phillips Chemical.  RLI has been under contracts and/or working agreements with most of these organizations and companies.

RLI is the world’s leading manufacturer of high performance biobased lubricants.  RLI has developed lubricants for 3500 horsepower high performance, high temperature racing engines to the most severe hydraulic requirements for the extreme cold temperatures of Lake Superior’s Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.  Mark Thomas has won 6 World Titles within the 15 years that RLI has formulated his racing oils.  This has never before been accomplished.  His record is unsurpassed in the Alcohol Funny Car class.  RLI has worldwide patents and proprietary additives that have shown exceptional performance in vegetable oils as lubricant base stocks.  This technology provides a low cost method for improving cold temperature performance and stabilizing oxidation of vegetable oil based lubricants for high and low temperature engine, transmission, hydraulic, gear, and many industrial fluid applications.  Internal and outside test data show that other commercially available compounds have not duplicated this level of performance.  Our patented technology and extensive field successes are what place us without peers in the biobased lubricant market.  RLI is providing these biobased products for the government and commercial markets.  This is a unique opportunity to comply with the New Farm Security and Investment Act of 2002 (H.R.2646), Executive Orders, and achieve major objectives for the environment, agriculture, and national security.  The new law, in Title 9 of the Farm Bill, includes a biobased products preference program which obliges all government agencies to purchase biobased products “to the maximum extent practicable”.

RLI’s Biobased products are freely sold in the United States and Internationally.  In formulating, manufacturing, and marketing these products, RLI is subject to the statutes and regulations of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Department of Defense (DOD), and other government agencies.  RLI has been contracted by and worked with the USDA and DOD since 1993.  RLI’s Biobased Product Technology endures grueling and demanding Military and Industrial Specification Test protocols to determine their performance, reliability, lifecycle cost, and safety.  Concurrent Technologies Corporation

(CTC) is an independent prime government contractor for this technology exploration and validation. RLI has been working with CTC and the DOD/TACOM, designing extreme cold temperature and fire resistant hydraulic fluid to meet improved MIL specifications for tactical equipment (see CTC letter).  Other independent government contractors who have evaluated RLI’s products include SouthWest Research Institute (SWRI) and National Institute for Standard Technology (NIST).  Industrial laboratory testing and evaluation of RLI’s products have been performed by companies such as Lubrizol, Chevron Phillips Chemical and other major companies for commercial use.

RLI’s Biobased Products are environmentally responsible lubricants that are formulated from renewable agricultural plant resources.  They should be especially used where low toxicity and biodegradability properties are required.  Base oils and additives in these products pass and exceed the acute toxicity (LC-50) criteria adopted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. EPA.  In addition, RLI’s Bio-Products are Biodegradable according to ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) D-5864 Aerobic Aquatic Biodegradation of Lubricants, and when noted, are Ultimate Biodegradable Pw1, ASTM’s highest rating.  The bacterial microorganisms used in biodegradation tests are some of the simplest forms of life, and like all living organisms, are adversely affected by the presence of chemical toxins.  The low toxicity of these biobased products is demonstrated by the microorganism’s ability to multiply and biodegrade RLI’s Biobased Products in ASTM biodegradation studies.

RLI’s products have been analyzed by the USDA to meet the biobased content guidelines for Preferred Procurement by U.S. Federal Agencies.  These Biobased Content Guidelines are listed in law H.R. 2646 SEC.9001. Definitions, for the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002.  The USDA testing facility for the biobased content is the Center for Sustainable Environmental Technologies, Iowa State University.  RLI’s technology has been analyzed in finished products through the BEES (Building for the Environmental and Economic Sustainability) Analysis by NIST.  BEES measures environmental performance using the environmental life-cycle (from cradle to grave) assessment approach specified in ISO (International Standard Organization) 14040 series of standards.

The governmental regulations for food grade ingredients are under the guidelines in 21CFR 178.3570, lubricants safe for incidental food contact (USDA H-1).  RLI’s food grade formulations are only composed of base oils and additives listed in this USDA regulation. 

All contents copyrighted 2008, Renewable Lubricants ^TM, Inc.

Patented Products: US Patent 6,383,992, US Patent 6,534,454, US Patent 6,624,124, US Patent 6,620,772 with additional Pending and Foreign Patents

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