BASE OILS
Base oils and collaboration are key to a more sustainable lubricants industry
What role do base oils play in formulating sustainable lubricants? And how might lubricant makers and base oil suppliers approach the issue?
Lubrizol’s Senior Director of Consumer Lubricants, Colin Morton and Senior Director of Business Excellence, Dave Duncan, recently sat down to share their thoughts, including key considerations for assessing base oil sustainability profiles and evaluating impact.
Interview with Colin Morton, Senior Director of Consumer Lubricants, and Dave Duncan, Senior Director of Business Excellence, Lubrizol
First, what is sustainable lubrication? Colin: At Lubrizol, we view sustainability as a lens through which we filter our business decisions, including how we innovate, design and produce products; how we collaborate internally and with our customers, suppliers and partners; and how we support and invest in our local communities.
How we define the sustainability of a lubricant depends on many things, including the raw materials used to produce our additives and finished lubricants, how and where they’re used, and on through the end of a product’s life.
Dave: Adding to Colin’s points on the lubrication side, we don’t look at sustainability in a vacuum. Rather, we take a holistic approach to every application because they’re all unique. For example, what constitutes sustainability in a passenger car engine oil can be very different than sustainability in another application, such as an open gear lubricant in an industrial setting.
So, as Colin was saying, lubricant sustainability really depends on factors unique to each application. And that’s a good thing because careful examination of
each situation often reveals previously unnoticed opportunities for improvement.
What’s driving demand for more sustainable lubricants? Dave: Specific to the transportation segment, there are several drivers, but a few stand out. For instance, public discussion about climate change has intensified. We’ve also seen increasingly stringent emissions requirements from regulatory bodies.
OEMs have kept pace with the changes over the years through continuous innovation, including the introduction of smaller, more efficient combustion engines and various aftertreatment devices that help reduce emissions. And, as you might expect, lubricant chemistry has evolved to enable the hardware.
But the lubrication industry has reached a tipping point. We can’t downsize engines and reduce viscosity levels forever. Instead, we need to start looking at what else we can do to make meaningful impacts.
OEMs and their suppliers know this and are beginning to look in closer proximity at opportunity areas, lubrication being one of them.
Continued on page 22 LUBE MAGAZINE NO.173 FEBRUARY 2023 21
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