Biolubricant Production from Several Oleaginous Feedstocks Using Lipases as Catalysts: Current Scenario and Future Perspectives

In recent years, biolubricants have been gaining further prominence than conventional petroleum-based lubricants. This trend is observed in almost all sectors relying on these products, regardless of their applications. Environmental problems caused by coventional lubricants and the depletion of oil reserves that have led to the need for renewable and biodegradable lubricants are among the factors that contribute to such growing trend. Biolubricants have several advantages over mineral oil lubricants such as high biodegradability, low toxicity, excellent lubricating performance, and minimal impact on the environment and human health. In addition, they can be produced using several types of oleaginous feedstocks and distinct chemical reactions that can be efficiently catalyzed by lipases, which make them quite attractive in the context of Green Chemistry. Thereby, this review describes different aspects of biolubricants by detailing their main applications, properties, uses, and potential feedstocks such as vegetable oils. In this review, chemical modification of their structures using different routes has been highlighted in order to overcome a few limitations for direct application of oleaginuous feedstocks as biolubricants. It also depicts the progress of enzymatic catalysis and immobilization protocols for preparing heterogenous biocatalysts (immobilized lipases), once it is a promising route to obtain a variety of biolubricants based on recent studies described in available literature. Furthermore, future prospects and challenges for enzymatic biolubricant production on an industrial scale are also reviewed.