Sustainable utilization of the vegetable oil manufacturing waste product in the formulation of eco-friendly emulsifiable cutting fluids

The conventional Metal cutting fluids (MCFs) used are mineral-based petroleum oils that perform well but are toxic and difficult to dispose of; therefore, these are hazardous to human health as well as the environment. This issue can be solved by using natural vegetable oil-based MCF, which are readily available, environment and human-friendly, and renewable. Therefore, we synthesized various types of emulsifiers (anionic, and nonionic with different ethylene oxide units as well as mono and gemini cationic surfactants as corrosion inhibitors and biocides) based on recycled vegetable oil (RO) from spent bleaching earth (SBE), and elucidated their chemical structures by different spectroscopic techniques. The individually synthesized emulsifiers (anionic, and nonionic with different ethylene oxide units) at different ratios (8–15 by wt.%) and mixed emulsifiers (anionic/nonionic, nonionic/nonionic with different degrees of ethylene oxide) at different ratios (8–12 by wt.%) were utilized as additives in the preparation of different vegetable residual oil-based MCF formulations. The mixed emulsifiers at different ratios of nonionic/nonionic with hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) value 10 (Formulas I, II, III, and IV), and anionic/nonionic (Formula V, and VI) exhibited stable emulsions compared to individual emulsifiers. Formulas (I and VI) displayed good protection effectiveness in corrosion tests. Formula VI had better wettability (25.22 on CS, 23.68 on Al, and 22.28 on WC) and a smaller particle size (63.97 nm). Tribological properties of Formula VI were also performed. The results exhibit that Formula VI is consistent with the commercial sample. As a result, this study contributed to the resolution of one of the industry's problems