Biodegradability, Eco-toxicological, Cell Viability, and MQL Re-usability Studies on Modified Vegetable Oil Metalworking Fluids

Abstract

The potential substitution of traditional cutting fluids with green Metalworking fluids (MWFs) is frequently explored because of their non-toxic and environmentally friendly characteristics. These green MWFs have often been evaluated for their tribological behavior and machining performance under various operating conditions. However, very few studies have analyzed the green metalworking fluids' ecological and eco-toxicological characteristics. With an aim to explore the potential impact and the related concerns of the developed green MWFs on the environment and eco-life, ecological and eco-toxicological experimental studies were performed in this research. This research study offers a comprehensive analysis of the biodegradability, soil eco-toxicity, cell viability, corrosion responsiveness, and reusability characteristics of the in-house developed nanoparticles-modified vegetable oil MWFs (MVO-MWFs). The findings from biodegradability studies demonstrate the inherent and readily biodegradable nature of the developed MWFs. Subsequently, soil eco-toxicity tests reveal the non-harmful nature of developed MWFs to the ecological organisms at the tested concentrations. Furthermore, during the cell viability assays, no evidence of cell death was observed in normal and cancer-affected cells under tested conditions. Additionally, the reusability studies on MQL imply that a considerable amount of MWF can be collected and reused to enhance the sustainability of the MWF system. This study established a decision-making approach to identify the optimal NP-based MWF combination by correlating multivariate data. Based on this work, a step-by-step methodology is recommended with four decision points to conduct a series of ecological and eco-toxicological protocols for the new or existing NP-based MWFs. This study contributes to the manufacturing research community and industry by shedding light on hitherto unexplored aspects of ecological and eco-toxicological investigations on the NP-based MVO-MWFs.