For diesel engine, the quality and performance of engine oil is affected by contamination and oxidative

degradation. As it degrades, the lubricant loses its effectiveness, until it must finally be replaced to
maintain engine performance and prevent damage to components. Oil degradation in engine is primarily
caused by contaminations such as soot, unburnt fuel, metal particles, and acid by-products of fuels.
Irreversible changes in viscosity are also linked to the additives degradation, soot content, oxidation
products, fuel residue, and base oil evaporation. These undesirable changes in lubricant viscosity and
formulation results in ineffective engine lubrication, consequently increase the engine parts wear and
friction. The quality of lubricant affects the wear and friction of engine components as well as the engine
performance and engine exhaust emissions [1].

Typically, formulation changes and oil aging over a few hours of engine operation gave rise to friction. The
quality of engine oil lubricant not only affects the interacting engine parts but also reduce the drain
intervals. Due to acidic contaminations, solid particles cause abrasive wear and corrosion and
tribochemical wear [2]. The contaminations of solid particles of sufficient size in engine oil results in
abrasive wear of piston rings as well as cylinder liner [3]. Researchers have also reported scratches on
cylinder liner as well as undesirable polishing on it due to small abrasive particles in used oils (Jiang &
Wang, 1998). It is evident by previous research that not only the physicochemical properties but also the
friction and wear characteristics of engine-aged oils are different from new engine oil [3, 4]. Despite the
fact that the use of engine-aged oil is more realistic in laboratory simulation of the piston ring–cylinder
liner interactions, little research has been done in this lubricating environment [3, 4].

Amidst concerns over energy security, environmental legislation, and increasing costs of fossil fuels, many
countries are taking action to promote the use of biodiesel [5]. Around the world, 419.2 thousand barrels
of biodiesel are being consumed each day. With the implementation of biodiesel regulations, the effect
of fuel on lubricating oil condition become significant especially for higher blend percentage of biodiesels.
Biodiesel is composed of fatty acid methyl esters (FAME), synthesized by the transesterification of crude
vegetable oils and animal oil/fats. Common biodiesel feedstocks include corn and soy oil (US), rapeseed
oil (Europe), and palm and jatropha oil (Southeast Asia). It is worth mentioning here that palm biodiesel
blending has been implemented in Malaysia several years ago, and the blending ratio is continuously
increasing with a target of B20 blend in 2018.

During normal engine operations, the engine oil is exposed to combustion gases and carbon based acids.
In such situations, the oxidation of base oil results in accumulation of the weak organic acids in the engine
oil. The problem becomes more intense for biodiesel operated engines where the researchers have
reported increased dilution and polymerization of engine oil which in turn requires more frequent oil
changes [6, 7]. The esters available in biodiesels are hydrolyzed to increase the concentrations of weak
acids in the lubricants. The related problems include high carbon deposits, piston oil ring sticking, and
increased engine oil viscosity [8].
Other than conventional engine oil additives, by pass filtration and slow additive release filters are two
filter technologies currently being used to control acidity and improve oil drain intervals [9]. In by pass
filtration technique the contamination particles are removed mechanically, leaving the acidic
contaminants untrapped. On the other hand, control over release rate is the main shortcoming in the
filter technology which is based upon slow release of additives like detergents, dispersants and
antioxidants etc. The accumulation of these additives increases ash content in lubricant.

For additive requirements of a zero-detergent lubricant, the effectiveness of novel approach of chemical
modification of oil filter element has been highlighted by the various earlier researchers [9-11]. This
approach is unique compared to conventional additive technology because it has the ability to induce a
chemical change in the lubricant without releasing compounds into the oil. The technique was found to
be simple to adopt. The major benefits include control of oil acidity, low variation in oil viscosity, total
base number (TBN) retention and reduced engine wear and corrosion.

A strong base filter can be used in combination with a lubricant containing no detergent additives to
minimize the detrimental effects of ash. The technique found to be simple to adopt as well as
economically suitable for various engines, fuels and lubricants. The related studies pointed out several
benefits of strong base filter technique for diesel engines fueled with Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel (ULSD) [9,
10]. The major benefits include improvement in oil degradation rate, control of oil acidity, oil viscosity,
total base number (TBN) retention and reduced engine wear and corrosion.

Strong base filter works by cyclic regeneration of the weak base. It displaces the weak base from
combustion acids-weak base complex. The combustion acid-weak base complex forms at piston ring zone
by interaction between combustion acids and lubricant detergent additives and travels within the
lubricant. While passing through the strong base filter, the weak base is displaced from combustion acid-
weak base complex resulting in formation of combustion acid-strong base complex. This displacement
happens via ion exchange as NaOH disposed on strong base filter exchanges with weak base in the
combustion acid-weak base complex. It results in regeneration and recycling of weak base in lubricant to
travel back and neutralize additional acid in piston ring zone. This cyclic process helps in extending the
alkaline reserve provided by over-based detergents which are most often used in fully formulated diesel
lubricants. The proposed mechanism for action of strong base oil filter has been discussed previously by
different researchers [11] and is illustrated in Figure 1.

Gulzar and his team carried out several tests involving several types of lubricant to further verify the
validity of this strong base filter technology in biodiesel-fueled engines [12, 13]. Sodium hydroxide (NaOH)
was selected as the neutralizing agents. In their first test, conventional commercial lubricant and palm
biodiesel was used as engine oil and fuel respectively. The strong base filter showed significant and
positive effect by decelerating the lubricant degradation rate. Even the drain interval was double for
strong base filter when compared to conventional oil filter. An average improvement of 7.11% in TBN
retention was achieved and TAN increase rate was decelerated to an average of 7.69%. Strong base filter
improved the engine performance for palm biodiesel fueled single cylinder CI engine. An improvement of
0.37% was achieved for BSFC and BTE for the considered testing conditions. Exhaust emissions were
reduced for the engine test with strong base filter. A reduction of 2.78% ,7.18% and 3.3% were observed
for CO, HC and smoke emissions respectively for strong base filter compared to that of standard filter [12].

The next series of tests involved a detergent free bio-based lubricant as engine oil. The chemically active
filter provided the alkaline reserve for detergent free lubricant without hazardous by-products. The acid
neutralization rate was more than twice for engine oil samples collected after engine testing with standard
filter. An improvement of 14.3% was observed in average corrosion resistance for chemically active filter
as compared to standard oil filter. Oil conditioning by chemically active filter resulted in friction reduction
by 12.9% and decreased cylinder liner wear rate by 9.2%. The lubricant degradation rate was reduced for
oil conditioned by chemically active filter. An extended drain interval of 200 h was achieved for chemically
active filter than that of standard filter which was only 80 h [13].

[1] H. Masjuki, M. Maleque, A. Kubo, and T. Nonaka. (1999). Palm oil and mineral oil based
lubricants—their tribological and emission performance. Tribology International, 32(6), 305-314.
[2] P. Andersson, J. Tamminen, and C.-E. Sandström. (2002). Piston ring tribology. A literature survey.
VTT Tiedotteita-Research Notes, 2178(1).
[3] J. J. Truhan, J. Qu, and P. J. Blau. (2005). The effect of lubricating oil condition on the friction and
wear of piston ring and cylinder liner materials in a reciprocating bench test. Wear, 259(7-12),
1048-1055.
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38(3), 211-218.
[5] R. Zdrodowski, A. Gangopadhyay, J. E. Anderson, W. C. Ruona, D. Uy, and S. J. Simko. (2010). Effect
of biodiesel (B20) on vehicle-aged engine oil properties. SAE International Journal of Fuels and
Lubricants, 3(2010-01-2103), 579-597.
[6] C. C. Devlin, C. Passut, R. Campbell, and T.-C. Jao, "Biodiesel fuel effect on diesel engine
lubrication," SAE Technical Paper 0148-7191, 2008.
[7] H. L. Fang, S. D. Whitacre, E. S. Yamaguchi, and M. Boons, "Biodiesel impact on wear protection
of engine oils," SAE Technical Paper 0148-7191, 2007.
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Comparative performance and emissions study of a direct injection diesel engine using blends of
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management, 47(18-19), 3272-3287.
[9] S. A. Watson, V. W. Wong, D. Brownawell, S. P. Lockledge, and S. Harold, "Oil Conditioning as a
Means to Minimize Lubricant Ash Requirements and Extend Oil Drain Interval," SAE Technical
Paper 0148-7191, 2009.
[10] S. A. Watson, V. W. Wong, D. Brownawell, and S. P. Lockledge, "Controlling lubricant acidity with
an oil conditioning filter," in ASME 2009 internal combustion engine division spring technical
conference, 2009, pp. 749-759.
[11] S. P. Lockledge and D. W. Brownawell, "Oil filters containing strong base and methods of their
use," ed: Google Patents, 2014.
[12] M. Gulzar, H. H. Masjuki, M. A. Kalam, M. Varman, and I. M. Rizwanul Fattah. (2015). Oil filter
modification for biodiesel–fueled engine: A pathway to lubricant sustainability and exhaust
emissions reduction. Energy Conversion and Management, 91, 168-175.
[13] M. Gulzar, H. H. Masjuki, A. Alabdulkarem, M. A. Kalam, M. Varman, N. W. M. Zulkifli, et al. (2017).
Chemically active oil filter to develop detergent free bio-based lubrication for diesel engine.
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