KEYWORDS

Viscosity Index Improvers, Fuel Efficient Engine Oils

THE ROLE OF VI IMPROVERS IN THE FORMULATION OF FUEL EFFICIENT ENGINE OILS AS DEMONSTRATED IN FOUR ENGINE PROTOCOLS

Energy efficiency and fuel economy are now vital considerations and therefore a major target for the lubricants industry. To get meaningful improvement for the majority of the cars, average driving cycles and habits must be considered in the design and use of fuel economy test protocols. Three generally accepted protocols are the NEDC, FTP and JC08 and there are new developments towards a world harmonized cycle called WLTC. In this work, fuel economy data are presented and compared for several lubricants run in a bench engine under each of these four protocols. The lubricants chosen for this study were blended with different viscosity modifiers in order to demonstrate the fuel economy performance of fluids of varying viscosity index with the expectation that high viscosity index oils will show a significant and measurable fuel economy benefit in these four protocols.

AUTHORS

Don Smolenski, Thorsten Bartels, Michael Seemann, Joan Souchik, Evonik Oil Additives USA, Horsham, PA and Gerald Russ, Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, Darmstadt, Germany