Dr.Freemanstein
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Alternative Lubricants
I have been recently considering a future without oil. So, research abounds in all sorts of areas. One area that is being a bit of a bugger, is that
of mechanical lubrication. For instance, in a future without oil, what could we possibly use to effectively and efficiently lubticate moving parts
instead of oil. I have tried to do some diggin on this subjuct, but have hit many brick walls!!! The only firm bit of info i have discovered is the
possible uses of Graphite as a lubricant, but I doubt Graphite (as we know it) could be used to lubricate, say, a vehicle engine. Has anyone else
done any thinking in this area??? 
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Mr. Wizard
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I don't think we'll ever have a lubricating oil problem, as the relative quantity of petroleum used for this purpose is tiny compared to the
amount of fuel consumed. We'll be whining a lot more about the fuel prices before we get to the lubricant.
Castor Oil, from the Castor Bean plant can be used as a lubricant. It also makes a hydraulic fluids used in the old Soviet era airplanes when mixed
with glycerine and methanol, and works at very low temperatures. Castor oil is still used in model toy engines, and has a distinctive smell. 100
pounds ( about 45Kilograms) of beans are supposed to yield about 5 gallons (about 20 liters) of oil. The trees will live over the winter in many
mild climates and produce abundant quantities of beans. They thrive in the poor soil where I live, needing only water and sunshine, and they'll
produce the first year. Jojoba bean oil is supposed to be a great lubricant, and is actually a liquid wax. It is a great safe lubricant but it's
very tough to bring enough plants to maturity to make Jojoba profitable.
Can anyone else mention any 'home grown' lubricating sources?
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Twospoons
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You can't have dug very hard. How about :
silicone oils, vegetable oils as wet lubricants,
molybdenum disulphide, teflon, silicone as dry lubricants,
nylon, acetal, teflon, antimony alloys, 'white metal', air, magnetic fields as dry bearing materials
Helicopter: "helico" -> spiral, "pter" -> with wings
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12AX7
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White metal: actually to work best this still needs a thin film (0.001" or so) of oil.
Natural lipids are all around us, if worse comes to worse, biodiesel type derivatives can be processed thoroughly to make pretty much the same things
as we have now, I imagine.
If worse comes to worse we could oligomerize hydrocarbons (including CH4, which I'm guessing can be made by reducing CO2, which itself can be
extracted from carbonate rock) under pressure and temperature to make a low yield of longer chains: gas, solvent, fuel, fuel oil, oil, etc. Such
products as ethylene of course can be polymerized under control to make longer things (or smaller things I imagine? I've never heard about
polyethylene oils though).
Tim
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Dr.Freemanstein
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Hmmm....
Did'nt consider the plant option! That is a good one. As for the rest of them, even Graphite come to think of it, are'nt really viable
future resourses, as they still have to be processed from elements which have a finite availablity, and we would eventually have just the same problem
as we are currently facing with oil.
Vegetable could be a positive step forward!
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12AX7
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Not really, graphite can be syntesized from natural tars and charcoal. 
Tim
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