Summary:
- Vegetable oils are being explored for a variety of uses in which they could replace petroleum products.
- One such application is in the field of lubricants.
- Every moving part in machinery (such as engine pistons) needs lubrication to decrease friction and prolong the life of the equipment.
- New techniques for making specialized esters from vegetable oil are now being explored that will make the compounds more stable and more useful as lubricant.
- An esterification is a condensation reaction in which an ester is formed from an alcohol and a carboxylic acid.