What’s synthetic motor oil made of and is it any better for the planet?
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Synthetic motor oil is also made from crude oil. It’s called synthetic because it has been chemically altered from its original state, but it’s still (overwhelmingly) made from crude oil. From the standpoint of the planet, synthetic oils are no better than traditional oil because they’re also made from crude, although you don’t have to change your oil as often when you use synthetic.
you are supposed to change the oil far less often with synthetic so in that way yes it’s a little better.
Synthetic oil is kinda like Pringles. They’re not really *potato chips.* But they’re made from potato byproduct, then processed, shaped into things that look like chips except they’re all identical, fried in oil, then stacked into cool packaging. No one’s ever going to mistake them for Lays, but at the end of the day it’s still deep-fried potato.
Vehicles that use synthetic oil also use different gaskets. The material has to be different to cope with the synthetic oil. If I remember correctly, any vehicle made after 2000 can use synthetic. Older vehicles still have to use regular engine oil
Oil is highly recycled. Sure, some of it isn’t disposed properly, but the vast majority is. I work in auto repair, and we have it hauled away by a reputable company that sells it to a recycler. A former Co workers father worked at a place that did the recycling and cleaning. Oil doesn’t go bad. It just gets contaminated. IIRC NASCAR runs reclaimed oil as an attempt to promote environmental awareness, despite how bad a traveling racing league is in general.
As I understand it from more than ten years ago (hopefully it hasn’t changed since), the difference from regular oil and synthetic is actually the molecule size. Every molecule in the synthetic bottle is 39 microns in size. They somehow filter regular oil so that only 39 microns sized molecules are separated from the rest. They do this because they determined that that is the best size for heat tolerance and viscosity. Regular oil is good but every bottle is technically different where as every bottle of synthetic is identical.
If you’re considering synthetic vs refined oil as a “green” choice, you’re splitting hairs while ignoring the bale of wool piled around you.
Owning a gas car at all, is an environmental disaster. Owning an electric car is also an environmental disaster, but it’s considerably less bad, and many Americans are 1000% forced into car ownership by their built environment, so it’s the lesser of two evils.
Not needing a car at all is the #1 choice in this regard. I leave it up to you to figure it out, with the full knowledge that I have personally made it happen in North America for most of my adult life. Yes, it’s absolutely possible, even though I can already hear your panic attack at the very thought of it.
Which oil you buy for a gas car doesn’t even register on the “making a difference” meter. Even just dumping it in a ditch would make no difference when compared to the insane amount of gasoline you burn.
Oil is like a chain. The chains in oil can be long or short. Regular oil has a mix of these long and short chains.
Over time, the longer chains break down and the pieces that break off makes the oil become less slippery.
Synthetic oil has all the same length of chains. These chains are less likely to break apart.
Engineering Explained on Youtube has some good videos on the subject:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo7rrex0IsE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lo7rrex0IsE)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPFSR-2lhxY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPFSR-2lhxY)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKdhgKUZhPA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKdhgKUZhPA)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFU6uMYL2EM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFU6uMYL2EM)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYkg0oDUXs8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYkg0oDUXs8)
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