ILMA Compoundings - April 2019 - 18

INDUSTRY RUNDOWN

In the Know
GHENT UNIVERSITY AND QUAKER CHEMICAL TEAM UP ON MWF BACTERIA
Detecting and reducing bacterial contamination in metalworking fluids (MWFs)
has been always been a challenge, but thanks to collaboration between veterinary
scientists at the Ghent University in Belgium and Quaker Chemical Corp., a
solution may be coming. By using flow cytometry (FCM), a cell analysis technique used primarily in the medical field, researchers can now better determine
the antibacterial potential of MWFs. The research team used the bacteria F. solani
as its model to measure fungal viability in MWFs, combining viable and dead bacteria with the MWFs and analyzing them through FCM. Within just five hours,
FCM was able to distinguish between live and dead bacteria, and within a day,
it was able to predict antibacterial capacity of MWFs. More traditional methods
of measuring this can take up to eight weeks because they depend on bacterial
growth. So, not only can FCM be used to assess antibacterial power of MWFs, it
can do so in a fraction of the time of conventional measurement methods.
BAKER HUGHES ANNOUNCES REAL-TIME LUBRICANT
MONITORING SYSTEM
Baker Hughes, a GE Co. (BHGE), announced an agreement with Emirates National
Oil Co. (ENOC) to co-develop VitalyX, a real-time lubricant monitoring system.
VitalyX can be deployed in multiple industries that use large machinery, and the
cloud-based system is designed to detect and measure key lubricant properties in real
time while simultaneously converting the data into actionable insights. Diarmaid
Mulholland, CEO of BHGE's Measurement & Sensing business, described the
new technology as a prime example of the industrial internet of things in action
through the use of sensor data to deliver new insights.
UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE RESEARCHERS CREATE RENEWABLE LUBRICANTS
The University of Delaware's UDaily reports that researchers at the university's
Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation (CCEI) and investigators from its partner
institutions have discovered a strategy to create renewable lubricant base oils
efficiently from non-food biomass and fatty acids. The group's research has been
published in Science Advances, and the group has filed an international patent
application to secure intellectual property rights for its methods. "We've provided
a new, efficient and versatile catalytic reaction pathway for synthesis of renewable
lubricants with tunable properties," said Sibao Liu, a postdoctoral researcher at the
university. "We hope this could eventually displace the manufacturing process for
some lubricants used today and minimize environmental carbon footprint, though
there is still a long way to go."
ACEA REPORTS DIESEL MARKET DOWN WHILE GASOLINE EXPANDS
The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) reports that in the
fourth quarter of 2018, diesel's share of the market fell from 41.2 percent to 34.1
percent, while gasoline continued to further expand its share of new car registrations (from 52.3 percent to 57.2 percent). Electrically chargeable vehicles (ECVs)
accounted for 2.7 percent of new cars registered across the European Union
during the last quarter of 2018, while all alternatively powered vehicles (APVs)
combined made up 8.6 percent of the market. Overall in 2018, more than half of
all new passenger cars registered in the EU ran on gasoline (up from 2017), while
diesel accounted for 35.9 percent, and only 2.0 percent of new cars were ECVs.

APRIL 2019

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ILMA Compoundings - April 2019

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