Carbon footprint of lubricants in power trains: Efficiency is still key!
Pär Nyman
M.Sc. Technical Manager Transmission & Axle Oil Transmission Development, Scania CV AB
This article will look at the difference in lubricant need for the powertrain of a modern heavy truck over its lifetime. Comparing that of an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) powertrain, including engine, manual transmission and a single driven rear axle, with a BEV power train consisting of a single eAxle. An estimation of the reduction potential of these lubricants will also be made. As the lubricant also has a significant effect on the powertrain friction the carbon footprint of the lubricants is compared to that related to the energy consumption.
While heavy trucks serve an important purpose within our society they are also a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. According to EU Regulation 2019/1242 25% of the CO2
emissions
from the transportation sector are emitted from heavy vehicles, including trucks, buses and coaches. This corresponds to 6% of the total CO2
emissions in
the EU. Without further actions it is assumed that this will increase by 9% between 2010-2030.
One action to prevent this emissions increase is the use of battery electric vehicles (BEV). Where a traditional powertrain comprises of an engine, transmission and rear axle, a corresponding BEV truck utilises an eAxle, a rear axle with an integrated electric motor, for its propulsion needs. This means that the need for lubricants will reduce significantly mainly because the need for engine lubricants has gone.
Comparing the powertrain lubricant needs of a typical internal combustion engine truck with a BEV truck propelled by a single eAxle (as displayed in tables 1 and 2) for a typical European long haulage truck, the following assumptions have been made: the truck when loaded weighs ~44 tons, is consuming 25 l diesel/100 km for an ICE drive train and 1,2 kWh/km electricity for the BEV. The truck typically runs 140000 km/year and has a life expectancy of 15 years.
The overall need for lubricants for the powertrain is reduced by a factor ~10 when comparing ICE to BEV. This corresponds to 1.9 tons CO2
e over truck life For
Figure 1: Long haulage truck of the type discussed in the article. Copyright Scania CV AB
this the greenhouse gas emission impact of 3.2 kg CO2
presented by Kettunen [2]. 8 LUBE MAGAZINE NO.170 AUGUST 2022 e/kg for fossil based lubricants has been used, as
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