The Power of Synthetics

For years, conventional oil was the good-enough lubricant that made internal combustion engines possible, derived and refined from the same crude oil used to create those engines’ fuels. It got the job done: lubricating and protecting components from harsh operating conditions — but there was a ceiling to its quality, since all its impurities could never be fully removed. This is where synthetic oil took the next step.

Built from the ground-up in a lab, synthetic oil achieves levels of purity that conventional oils can never reach — and creates the opportunity for even more improvement. With the help of similarly engineered additives, synthetic lubricants can provide better wear protection, extreme temperature performance, engine cleanliness, emission system protection and fuel economy, all while being more uniform and consistent across the board.

A cold start

Considering its advantages, it’s surprising that synthetic lubricant actually took a long while to catch on. As early as 1929, the Standard Oil Company of Indiana was working to try and commercialize their synthetic products,¹ but it failed to catch on… not due to lack of quality, but lack of demand. Even after F.W. Sullivan, one of their leaders and top researchers, published a paper in 1931 that disclosed their process for polymerizing olefins to form liquid products, people just didn’t care. They trusted their conventional oil, and they would continue trusting it until they had a reason to switch.

That reason came in the form of the Battle of Stalingrad during World War II. From July, 1942 to February, 1943, the armies of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union engaged in the fiercest battle of the entire conflict, and while the Allied Powers’ eventual victory was due to a multitude of factors, one of them was inarguably the Axis army’s reliance on conventional oil, which froze solid in the engines of their tanks and aircraft during the merciless winter months.² After the battle, the need for more resilient machinery operations in brutal temperatures was obvious, and engineers — along with consumers — began looking for an alternative. They found it in synthetic lubricants.

What synthetic lubricant makes possible

As synthetic oil became more popular, innovative engineers quickly discovered how much it made possible. In addition to most cutting edge aviation technology, like jet fuel, synthetic lubricants facilitated the creation of more dynamic multigrade oil with less viscosity modifier due to the higher VI of the synthetic base stocks, which allowed the proliferation of passenger vehicles and helped the trucking industry establish its foothold in the American economy and popular culture (see our earlier article about exactly that).

Running hard long into the future.

While the first Mobil Delvac™ synthetic lubricants were developed in the 1950s, they’ve never stopped improving — and they never will. The greatest advantage of synthetic lube is that it’s made in a lab, with every molecule carefully chosen by teams of experts building on generations of innovation, insight and experience. As the Mobil Delvac™ brand story writes the first chapters of its second century, we will continue providing superior engine cleanliness, efficiency, drain capability, and more.

¹https://mil-comm.com/lubricants/the-ultimate-historical-timeline-of-mechanical-lubrication/#:~:text=In%201923%2C%20the%20Society%20of,first%20to%20develop%20synthetic%20hydrocarbons
²https://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/api/collection/p15040coll2/id/2904/download#:~:text=World%20War%20II%20
(WWII)%2C,when%20lubricants%20from%20vehicles%20froze