GREEn Norwegian LubricANt proDuction

Lubricant leakages and spills from marine vessels have become an environmental issue of great concern over the last decades. Increased awareness of maritime lubricants polluting the oceans has triggered some countries to launch restrictive regulations that ban the use of conventional mineral based products and force the use of Environmentally Acceptable Lubricants (EALs). However, the performance of EALs can still be improved by developing new products. The GREENLAND project will contribute to the green shift by developing more reliable and innovative EALs for marine applications. Based on this innovation, a new lubricant production site can be established in Norway. In the GREENLAND project a new formulation has been proposed as an alternative to the currently used EALs in the maritime industry. It is well known that one of the main limitations of today's EALs is the hydrolysis that occurs when they come in contact with sea water, which leads to an acidic environment that can easily degrade critical components. The proposed formulation in the GREENLAND project avoids the hydrolysis mechanism in the lubricant, and it also targets another big challenge of the EALs: its high prices compared to polluting mineral-based lubricants. The project now enters a new phase of qualifying the newly developed product based on the strictest specifications from Original Equipment Manufacturers. Once the qualification protocol is finished a pilot scale test will be performed before the product can be launched to the market.

Lubricant leakages and spills from marine vessels have become an environmental issue of great concern over the last decades. Increased social, Governmental and non-Governmental associations awareness have triggered some countries to launch restrictive regulations intended to minimize the pollution of oceans and coasts. The new regulations (e.g. EPA 2013 Vessel General Permit) require the use of environmentally acceptable lubricants (EALs) in all oil-to-sea vessel interfaces while restricting the use of toxic and polluting mineral oil based lubricants. This transition from using very well-known and established mineral oil based lubricants to EALs has led to an increased number of reported failures both in vessel equipment and seals. One of the main challenges when formulating an EAL is the limited number of base oils that fulfills the requirements to biodegradability, bioaccumulation and toxicity, and therefore the choice of the additive package is critical. An inappropriate selection of the right additives will adversely affect the properties of the base oil by contributing to secondary effects that will risk the performance of the lubricant or by promoting unwanted chemical reactions. Despite the improvements over the last years there is still needed to develop more reliable additive packages and EALs formulation. Therefore, the GREENLAND project aims at contributing to the Norwegian green shift by developing more reliable and innovative additives that can be used for establishing a new lubricant production site in Norway. GREENLAND will be led by Arctic Coating in collaboration with Kongsberg Maritime and Funzionano as industrial partners, and SINTEF Industry as the Research Institute. The partners cover the whole value chain of EAL production, from additives production to EAL formulation and production and an end user to validate them at industrial scale.