Decreasing mineral oil resources, increasing costs, and the need for environmental protection in the use and disposal of lubricants have forced researchers to develop green lubricant formulations. Although many green lubricants consisting of biodegradable base stocks that exhibit excellent properties have been developed, further improvements in their friction and wear performance are required for them to become replacements for mineral-oil-based lubricants. Therefore, in addition to the introduction of biolubricants, the development of new environmentally benign lubricant additives is gaining attention to address the environmental issues. Along these lines, the present investigation involved the synthesis of cellulose laurate by an esterification reaction between microcrystalline cellulose and lauroyl chloride [CH3(CH2)(10)COOCl] using dimethylacetamide/lithium chloride (DMAc/LiCl) as the solvent and 4-(dimethylamino)pyridine (DMAP) as the catalyst. Different reactions were carried out with varying concentrations of lauroyl chloride. Three samples (Cell Lau-A, -B, and -C) with different degrees of substitution (DS) were then characterized using IR spectroscopy, NMR spectroscopy, TG, SEM, CHN analysis, and XRD to confirm the conversion of the cellulose into cellulose laurate ester. The degrees of substitution (DS) of the synthesized samples were determined using the NMR method. The lubricating efficiencies of the cellulose laurate samples were estimated using a high-frequency reciprocating rig (HFRR) by measuring the wear scar diameters (WSDs) of spherical specimens and the coefficient of friction. The lubricity was found to increase with increasing concentration of cellulose laurate ester in n-butyl palmitate/stearate. Regarding the lubricity of the cellulose laurate esters with different values of DS, the lubricity increased as the DS increased.