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Technical Paper

Management of Lubricant Fuel Economy Performance over Time through Fuel Additives

2012-04-16
2012-01-1270
Government regulations and market demands continue to emphasize conservation of fossil fuels in the transportation industry. As a consequence, any incremental improvement in fuel economy (FE) is of great importance in the automotive sector. For instance, lower viscosity lubricants have been shown to improve FE but the longevity of such improvement is compromised by viscosity increases often observed as a lubricant ages during an oil drain interval (ODI). To address this issue, an option to manage lubricant viscometrics via fuel is proposed. In order to investigate such mitigation of viscosity increase during an ODI, and potentially the delivery of an ODI-averaged FE benefit, a fleet test was conducted with a fuel-borne additive intended to control increases in lubricant viscosity. The fleet test compared a market-representative reference fuel to a fuel containing a viscosity control additive (VCA).
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