• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.421-427
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• 2012

To improve the lubricity of ultra low sulfur diesel, vegetable oil-based alkanol amide derivatives were prepared and their lubricity properties were studied. To synthesize the alkanol amides, we conducted the amidation reaction of diethaolamine High Frequency Reciprocating Rig (HFRR) and the fatty acid methyl esters, obtained by the continuous transesterification of methanol and several vegetable oil, such as soybean oil, palm oil and coconut oil. The synthesized amides were soluble in ultra low sulfur diesel in the concentration range of ca. 1 wt%; the lubricating properties of ultra low sulfur diesel containing 120 ppm of amides were measured using an HFRR method. It was found that the wear scar diameter in the pure ultra low sulfur diesel decreased significantly from 581 ${\mu}m$ to 305~323 ${\mu}m$ upon the addition of the amides, indicating that lubricating properties of the diesel were improved. On the other hand, the types of vegetable oils did not affect the wear scar diameters, implying that lubricating properties of the diesel did not depend strongly on the structures of alkyl groups of alkanol amide derivatives. When we measured the lubricating properties of the one type of diesels containing various amounts of alkanol amide, we observed that the wear scar diameter decreased drastically with increasing the amide concentration, meaning that the lubricity improved with the amide concentration.