GREASES
Exploring lithium alternatives in a disrupted grease market
Francesc Alomar, Product Manager for grease additives, EMEA; Gareth Fish, Ph.D., CLS, CLGS, Technical Fellow; and Robert Dura, Ph.D., CLGS, Director of Grease and Metalworking fluids, Lubrizol
Lithium has long been the preferred thickening agent for industrial greases, but unpredictable availability, fluctuating prices, and supply chain reliability have forced a search for alternatives.
The industrial lubricating grease market has long been one of consistency and stability. But that time may now be over.
Why? The short answer is that lithium soaps—an important thickening agent present in 60% of global industrial grease volume—are increasingly difficult for grease producers to manufacture.
This is a true industry-wide challenge. Lithium features reliable thickening properties, good compatibility with base oils and additives, and offers suitable performance for long-term use in a variety of industrial applications. And while non-lithium soap-thickened greases also have demonstrated good multi-purpose performance attributes, the long-standing predominance of lithium throughout the industrial grease market points to the need for a widely available, reliable, and consistent alternative. The technical teams at Lubrizol have accelerated the search for such alternatives and have identified candidates with good potential. This article will detail the origins of the lithium availability crisis and explore potential lithium alternatives and the value they can bring to the industrial grease market.
The lithium crisis
Demand for lithium has skyrocketed in recent years due primarily to the ongoing proliferation of electric and electrified vehicles, which has created a massive new market for lithium-powered batteries.
24 LUBE MAGAZINE NO.180 APRIL 2024
These batteries are expected to dominate the global supply of lithium in the coming years and won’t stop anytime soon. Where the industrial grease market once represented the majority share of lithium demand, today it represents just a small fraction of global volume. And while new lithium mines are opening and potential large new reserves are announced, lithium demand for batteries is still to reach its peak and, according to forecasts, will not peak for many years to come.
For grease manufacturers, this is not the only challenge. Potential changes in classification and labelling, which is still to be decided by the European Union (EU), pose an even larger threat to the industry and could result in restrictions in a comparable way to other popular chemistries like formaldehyde releasers, boric acid, or PTFE, to name a few. In 2021, the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) published an opinion that lithium hydroxide was identified as a reproductive hazard with a Category 1A H360FD and a lactation hazard H362. Substances identified as being carcinogenic, mutagenic, or toxic to reproduction (CMR) with a defined Category 1A/B are eligible for a REACH substance of very high concern (SVHC) listing. Such a categorisation would significantly affect the global grease industry, and for some applications/end uses, alternative thickener systems will be needed.
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