Environmental Performance
The challenge to the lubrication industry is to maintain exceptional product performance, reliability and ease of retrofit whilst protecting the marine environment.
Many lubricants claim to be "environmentally friendly" or "environmentally preferable" or "food grade". However, environmental performance claims for marine lubricants are valuable only when they are backed up by robust scientific evidence.
Many lubricants used onboard vessels will be discharged into the sea and so should be tested under conditions that closely mimic this environment, not freshwater or soil environments. There must be clearly defined criteria for measuring the environmental performance of these lubricants. Therefore it is important to ask the right questions and get the right information to enable the most appropriate products to be selected.
The key evaluation characteristics to measure the marine environmental performance of lubricants are:
Marine biodegradation
Test methods: OECD 306 or BODIS.Target: More than 60% of the chemical to biodegrade in 28 days, or more than 20% in 28 days if non-bioaccumulative and non-toxic.
Bioaccumulation
Test methods: OECD117 or 107 taking into consideration molecular weight.Target: Reduced potential for bioaccumulation. Either log Pow<3 in OECD 117/107 or molecular weight of chemical >700.
Marine toxicity
Test methods: Acute toxicity to marine species across the food chain - algae (Skeletonema costatum - ISO 10253), copepods (Acartia tonsa - ISO 14669), fish (Scophthalmus maximus - PARCOM 1995/ OECD 203) and sediment reworker (Corophium volutator - PARCOM 1995).Target: Low toxicity for different species in the marine food chain. Toxicity (LC50) >10mg/l.
The effect of additives
Lubricants are manufactured from highly refined base oils with functional additives present in order to give the required performance properties to suit the intended application. A lubricant may well be formulated using a biodegradable base oil, but with no thought given to the environmental effects of the additives on the marine environment. Lubricant additives are often strongly surface-active and stable organic compounds, which means that they have a strong potential to be toxic and to bioaccumulate. Lubricants therefore need to be evaluated on a component level to assess their true environmental credentials.
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