Green Tribology for the Sustainable Engineering of the Future

Abstract

Environmental awareness and especially the legislation that requires the reduction of polluting emissions are strong driving forces toward more sustainable engineering and greener solutions in the design, use and overall life span of machinery. However, providing novel concepts that will exclude non-environmentally adapted, but over many years developed and optimized solutions, is not an easy task. It clearly requires time if the same level of technical performance is to be maintained. Green tribology is one of the fields that has been closely involved in these actives in the past two decades. The research and use of tribology science and technology toward green and sustainable engineering include natural material usage, lower energy consumption, reducing natural oil resources, reducing pollution and emissions, fewer maintenance requirements and thus reduced machinery-investment cycles. This report is not an attempt to cover all the existing concepts, attempts or literature available in the field, but mainly those efforts that our group has been working on over the past 20 years, which mainly includes novel green-lubrication concepts that come from exploring and exploiting surface engineering through the use of diamond-like-carbon (DLC) coatings.

Solving the Problem of Friction and Wear in Auxiliary Devices of Internal Combustion Engines on the Example of Reciprocating Air Compressor for Vehicles

“…In this way, contact with lower friction and wear is achieved. The reconstruction was performed partly according to the guidelines for the application of green tribology measures in engineering [27].…”

Thermal Characteristics and Tribological Performances of Solid Lubricants: A Mini Review

“…The conflict between people and energy has grown increasingly acute since the dawn of the twenty-first century, and humanity now faces a significant energy crisis as a result of high population growth and extensive fossil fuel exploitation. Every year, 20% of the world's energy is used to overcome friction, and it is possible to decrease this energy loss by using new system design to create innovative materials, efficient lubricants [124][125][126]. For the energy crisis to be slowed and energy loss to be minimised, an efficient lubricant is essential.…”

Tribology and self-organization in reducing friction: A brief review

“…Changes in contact interaction, leading mostly to destructive processes, will affect the life of the system. If the processes are in a steady-state, the system is considered safe and sustainable [12][13][14]. Sustainability also includes the values and advantages of quality [13].…”

“…In this regard, we urgently need more efficient, green and sustainable tribological systems to help reverse this growing trend for future generations. Green tribology, as a science and technology of the tribological aspects in the ecological balance and environmental impact, can be used to save energy and materials, as well as especially to improve quality and protect the environment [13][14][15][16][17]. Special attention is paid to the new methods for obtaining extremely low friction and wear, such as the selective transfer of material between the contact surfaces and superlubricity phenomena, both based on the principle of self-organization.…”