Where is the leak?

Published in Schweizer Maschinen Markt, Switzerland - no. 17-2002

 

In Switzerland alone, many hundreds of tons of used lubricants make their way into the environment every year, through emissions, leakage and other similar uncontrolled causes. The question is - can we still afford that in this day and age?

 

Unfortunately, even today there is a high "seepage rate" of all kinds of lubricants back into our environment. This calls for drastic measures: A reduction in the quantity of lubricants being used consequently leads to a decrease in the disposal of waste lubricants. Meanwhile, international standards, regulations and laws force companies to proceed accordingly: The buzzword is "eco-audit". New ways have been found to ensure the environment is protected against the impact of industry. The EU eco-audit regulation differentiates between a company’s environmental policy, its environment-related objectives and programmes, environmental management systems - which deal with lubrication-related issues - and good management practice.

 

Eco-lubrication

Companies need to consider both the ecological and economic aspects to ensure genuine environmentally friendly lubrication and thus commit to a continuous improvement in environmental protection. Each and every emission or contamination affects our environment. Any lubricants which could potentially make their way into the environment need to be rapidly biodegradable and non-hazardous to water. At the same time, however, these lubricants still have to offer excellent technical performance. Thus, longer re-lubrication intervals can be achieved using smaller quantities of lubricant, constituting the best way to avoid the unnecessary generation of waste.

 

Different types of oils

Synthetic esters are particularly suitable for circulation or total-loss lubrication. They are rapidly biodegradable, not hazardous to water and offer excellent technical performance.

Though rape seed oils show the best biodegradability rates of all oils, their temperature and oxidation stability is insufficient, which is why today they play no major role as industrial lubricants.

When selecting a lubricant for a certain application, the following environment-related rules should apply:

General laws of tribology
The field of tribology deals with friction, wear and lubrication. In Switzerland alone, each year friction and wear cause losses in energy, maintenance, spare parts and down-time costs amounting to several billion Swiss francs every year.

It was not until the second half of 20th century that scientists started looking at lubrication with growing interest. Practical experience and theoretical insights lead us to conclude that the losses incurred through friction and wear could be reduced by 10 to 30 %.

From an ecological and economic point of view, lifetime lubrication would be most desirable: A machine element or unit is lubricated only once before and/or during commissioning, and the lubricant remains effective during the components’ entire working life. However, lifetime lubrication is not yet feasible for all applications.

 

Lubricant disposal

Whoever believes that rapidly biodegradable lubricants can be released into our environment in large quantities without causing any harm is labouring under a misapprehension. When rapidly biodegradable lubricants are uncontrollably discharged into the environment, however, they would be expected to have the least impact.

 

A matter of quantity

Whether the micro-organisms in our environment can actually transform a lubricant into substances which are not harmful to nature, is a question of the quantities involved. It is also a matter of the quantity of rapidly biodegradable lubricants released into the environment, whether such an incident is classed as an accident or even an emergency. And please bear in mind: Rapidly biodegradable lubricants also need to be disposed of appropriately.

Typical applications for rapidly biodegradable lubricants are hydroelectric power plants, machines and vehicles in agriculture and forestry, municipal installations and building and civil engineering.

 

 

Performance criteria	Natural oils		Mineral oils	Synthetic oils
	vegetable olive oil, palm oil, rape seed oil	animal fish oil, tallow oil, claw oil		Perfluorinated polyethers, esters, synthetic hydrocarbons, polyglycols, silicone oils
Physical characteristics:
- low temperature	insufficient to satisfactory	insufficient to satisfactory	satisfactory to good	satisfactory to very good
- high temperature	insufficient	insufficient	satisfactory	good to very good
- lubricity	good to very good	good to very good	satisfactory to good	insufficient to very good
Chemical characteristics:
- oxidation stability	insufficient to satisfactory	insufficient	satisfactory	good to very good
- biodegradability	rapidly biodegradable	rapidly biodegradable	potentially biodegradable	not at all to rapidly biodegradable
- hydrolitic stability	insufficient	insufficient	very good	insufficient to very good

 

 

The lubricant as a factor in environmental management...

 

Othmar Cornu, Klüber Lubrication Switzerland

 

More online information on our range of lubricants, including biologically degradable applications, can be taken from our application database.

 

For further information please contact us:

Klüber Lubrication München KG
Geisenhausenerstr. 7
81379 München
Tel. 00 44 - (0) 89 / 78 76-0
Fax 089/78 76-333
eMail: marketing.service@klueber.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Correctly selected and applied lubricants ensure minimum effects on the environment