MACHINERY LUBRICATION- INDIA NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2019 | Page 36

INDUSTRY NEWS
GULF OIL AND PIAGGIO JOIN HANDS TO LAUNCH
LUBRICANTS FOR COMMERCIAL VEHICLES
Gulf Oil Lubricants India recently inked a pact with Piaggio Vehicles
to market co-branded lubricants for commercial vehicles. The new
products have been co-developed for the entire range of commercial
vehicles, including the ones conforming to the upcoming BS-VI
emission norms.
"This (tie-up) helps us to further grow our business in OEM segment
as well as expand our business in the three-wheeler category," Gulf
Oil Lubricants MD Ravi Chawla said in a statement. Through this
partnership, Piaggio customers will be able to avail top of the line
products to enhance the performance of their vehicles and together,
the companies will be able to strengthen the usage of these products
with their reach and service initiatives, he added.
"Gulf Oil's technical expertise based on its world-class R&D setup
and manufacturing facilities in India will certainly provide superior
value to 27 lakh Piaggio customers," Piaggio Vehicles CEO & MD
Diego Graffi said.
THE NOVEL METHOD TURNS PLASTIC
WASTE INTO LUBRICANTS
Scientists have developed a new method
for upcycling single-use plastics into
high-quality liquid products, such as
motor oils, lubricants, detergents and
cosmetics. The advance by researchers,
including those from North-western
University in the US, also improves on
current recycling methods that result in
cheap, low-quality plastic products.
The catalytic method, described in the
journal ACS Central Science, serves a
one-two punch by removing plastic
pollution from the environment and
contributing to a circular economy. The
researchers noted that each year, 380
million tonnes of plastic are created
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worldwide. As the plastics market
continues to increase, many analysts
predict production could quadruple by
2050, they said. More than 75 per cent
of these plastic materials are discarded
after one use. Many of them end up in
our oceans and waterways, harming
wildlife and spreading toxins.
While plastics can be melted and
reprocessed, this type of recycling yields
lower-value materials that are not as
structurally strong as the original
material. Examples include down-
cycling plastic bottles into a moulded
park bench, the researchers said. When
left in the wild or in landfills, plastics do
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not degrade because they have very
strong carbon-carbon bonds. Instead,
they break up into smaller plastics,
known as microplastics. The catalyst
consists of platinum nanoparticles - just
two nanometers in size - deposited onto
perovskite nanocubes, which are about
50-60 nanometres in size. The team
chose perovskite because it is stable
under the high temperatures and
pressures and exceptionally good
material for energy conversion. Under
moderate pressure and temperature,
the catalyst cleaved plastic's carbon-
carbon bond to produce high-quality
liquid hydrocarbons, the researchers
said.