Ralph Beard, vice president of lubricant components at specialty chemical distributor Palmer Holland, will present “The History and Future of Bio-derived ‘Green’ Lubricants” on Friday, Oct. 26, at 1 p.m. in 1120 Shelby Center. The seminar is hosted by Auburn University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers, a national organization comprised of more than 10,000 individuals and 150 businesses in the tribology and lubrication industry.

Beard will discuss lubricants derived from biomass, such as soybeans, canola and trees, which are renewable, unlike lubricants made from mineral oil. He will explain the advantages and challenges these lubricants possess, as well as the impacts they may bring to the automotive, agriculture, forestry, paper and food processing industries.

Beard began his career as a commercial sales representative at Union Oil Company in 1971 and has been heavily involved in technical services, product development and the sales and marketing of additives, base oils and full formulated automotive and industrial lubricants. For the past 20 years he has watched his own enterprise, Triad Lubrication Components, grow from a one man business into a distributor of lubricant raw materials covering 11 Southern states. Triad was sold to Palmer Holland in 2010.