Kunlun Lubricant's Core Technology Leads Internationally

Breaking the foreign technology monopoly, PetroChina Lubricant moves from manufacturing to creation and stands tall at the high end of the market
After more than 30 years of dedicated research by several generations, PetroChina Lubricant Company has broken the foreign technological monopoly, forming a series of engine oils with environmentally friendly features based on its original salicylate technology, and the technology Preparation Technology and Industrial Application of Extreme Pressure Anti-Wear Additives and Packages for Gear Oils, centered on its original extreme pressure anti-wear additives containing sulfur and phosphorus compounds, won a 2009 second prize of the National Technology Invention Award, placing PetroChina Kunlun Lubricant at the high end of the market.
It is understood that individual additives and their compounding are the core technologies determining lubricant quality and use, and foreign companies keep them strictly confidential. For a long period, China relied on imported additive packages to improve lubricant product quality. To break the technological monopoly, China began organizing scientific and technological research starting with the Seventh Five-Year Plan. Through decades of dedicated research at the Lanzhou R&D Center of PetroChina Lubricant Company, the company joined the ranks of the world's advanced lubricant players with independent intellectual property rights and proprietary technology, achieving enormous economic and social benefits.
Fu Xisheng, Director of the Lanzhou R&D Center of PetroChina Lubricant Company, said in an interview that alkyl salicylate products offer advantages including energy saving, low sulfur and environmental protection, good oil solubility, resistance to high temperatures and heavy loads, and good water separation and anti-foam performance. The product introduces a carboxyl group onto alkylphenol and moves the metal from the hydroxyl position to the carboxyl position. This transformation increases molecular polarity and greatly improves high-temperature detergency. Compared with the engine oil formulation technologies used by major lubricant companies worldwide, it is better suited to China's conditions and meets the requirements of emission reduction and environmental protection.
In November 2009, Kunlun Lubricant launched its salicylate-system new formulation, fully upgraded Kunlun New Tianhong diesel engine oil, whose quality reaches internationally advanced levels. Because the product is better adapted to Chinese road conditions, it was welcomed by heavy truck manufacturers and drivers as soon as it was launched.
Tianhong gear oil produced with the technology Preparation Technology and Industrial Application of Extreme Pressure Anti-Wear Additives and Packages for Gear Oils has now passed a 100,000-kilometer road test without an oil change, with quality higher than similar products at home and abroad.
In the lubricant industry, the most widely used products are engine oils, gear oils and hydraulic oils, accounting for 80 percent of the lubricant market.
At present, relying on the proprietary formulation technologies of the Lanzhou R&D Center and the Dalian R&D Center of PetroChina Lubricant Company, and building on the Tianhong series products, PetroChina Lubricant Company is working to complete this year the adjustment of the Tianxie and Tianlai series lubricants, greases and some industrial oil product lines.
Moving from manufacturing to creation is a development concept that PetroChina Lubricant Company has consistently upheld. Since its establishment, the Lubricant Company has always attached importance to investing in scientific research at its two R&D centers, investing more than 900 million yuan cumulatively over nine years.
In 2009, to strengthen the basic platform for lubricant science and technology, raise the level of technological development and cultivate first-class scientific and technological talent, the group company approved the establishment of a key lubricant laboratory, giving wings to Kunlun Lubricant's take-off.