Farnesene-Derived Polyolefin Base Oils

The American Petroleum Institute classifies lubricant base oils into groups based on the amount of saturates, sulfur content, and viscosity index. Group I base oils have high aromatic content and lower viscosity index. The base oils resulting from the boron trifluoride-catalyzed oligomerization of farnesene with linear alpha olefins have similar structure and performance properties to polyalphaolefins, including high viscosity and low pour point. Farnesene-derived base oils contain fully saturated iso-paraffinic structures. Farnesene-derived base oils have significantly higher biodegradability than petroleum-based and polyalphaolefin (PAO) hydrocarbon base oils. Since farnesene is a 100% renewable material from sugar sources, base oils derived from farnesene are also renewable products. Farnesene-derived base oils are synthetic hydrocarbons that are oligomerized from two pure chemical raw materials, farnesene and linear alpha olefins, which are >95% isoparaffinic hydrocarbons. Farnesene-Derived Base Oils formulations allow for finished products with the classical performance of a PAO-based product with the environmental performance of an ester product.