Lubricants don’t have the greenest credentials. After all, as a petroleum-based product that can produce harmful emissions when used, lubricants and petroleum-based products are significant contributors to emissions and overall climate change. They are also based on a finite resource, petroleum, that requires substantial energy and emissions to extract for manufacturing. Environmentalists, lawmakers, and now even manufacturers recognize that it’s time to begin to make more environmentally friendly lubricant products.

To that end, many lubricant manufacturers have begun to explore alternative lubricant technologies that are created using more sustainable materials. You can see the effects of this movement in the oil aisle of your local automotive store. Some products are labeled ‘environmentally friendly,’ ‘biodegradable, ‘bio-based,’ or even ‘eco-friendly.’ But are these products better for the environment? It depends. In most cases, these terms are simply marketing buzzwords applied to a product to improve sales. In actuality, the products are often a little more environmentally friendly than older formulas.

Choose Environmentally Acceptable Lubricants
Environmentally Acceptable Lubricants or EALs are the best choice for environmentally friendly lubricants. EALs must meet specific industry specifications set out by governing bodies like the EPA here in the United States and the European Union’s Ecolabel (EEL) criteria. There are several different types of criteria a lubricant product must meet to be classified as an EAL. Here are the three main categories.

  • Biodegradability: A lubricant product must meet a higher biodegradability standard to qualify as an EAL. This means the product will quickly decompose and break down in the event of a spill or other contamination, with minimal environmental effects. Two types of biodegradation are important for EALS: primary and ultimate. Each of these types of biodegradation occurs naturally, but in EAL lubricants, they must happen faster and with minimal effect on the outside environment or other substances.
    • Primary biodegradation: This type of biodegradation refers to the breakdown of the product’s chemical makeup. Hence, it no longer functions as it used to. An easy way to think of it is when fat is skimmed out of milk and then churned to make butter. Each product started as the same substance, but then the chemical makeup was altered by separating the fat in the milk and used to create something different.
    • Ultimate biodegradation: This type of biodegradation is the complete breakdown of the product into its basic chemical forms like carbon dioxide, water, and minerals.
  • Low Toxicity: EAL lubricants must meet another vital criterion: aquatic toxicity. Aquatic environments and substances are especially vulnerable to adverse effects from lubricant products, so EAL products must be low toxicity to limit environmental damage.
  • Bioaccumulation: Have you ever heard of microplastics? Scientists have begun to study how plastic breaks down in the water and have found microscopic plastic waste derived from plastic waste. These microplastics are beginning to be measured, accumulating in water, plant and animal life as more plastic waste is disposed of. Like microplastics, bioaccumulation relates to how EAL lubricants build up in the environment over time. Some lubricant components may take longer to degrade into natural elements, so like microplastics, they build up and affect the environment. To qualify as an EAL lubricant, these products must meet bioaccumulation benchmarks that limit the build-up of chemical components over time.

Where is the greatest demand for EAL lubricants?
There are a lot of standards a product must meet to be classified as an EAL lubricant. But progress is being made. Much of this progress has come about because of the EPA’s Vessel General (VGP) regulation. This standard created to help protect aquatic environments requires any lubricant that may come into contact with water environments to be an EAL product. The VGP standard was established in 2013, and it’s a driving point for developing more EAL lubricant products. Under this standard, EAL lubricants must have very high biodegradability, low levels of aquatic toxicity, and low levels of bioaccumulation so that there is a reduced environmental fallout in the event of a spill.

But it isn’t only in the water that demand for EAL lubricants is rising. Many industries see the value of reducing their environmental footprint using EAL products. For example, many more construction companies and heavy-duty operators opt to use EAL lubricants, especially when working in environmentally sensitive areas, to mitigate damage from lubricant leakage, spills, or other situations.

Choose Chevron Clarity® Synthetic Hydraulic Oil
Chevron is committed to developing products that are better for our environment. As an example, let’s explore the Clarity® Synthetic Hydraulic Oil. This product is designed for industrial use in environmentally sensitive areas. Not only does this product offer superior protection and performance, but it also meets higher environmental standards. Here are a few of the benefits of this product:

  • It’s created using a synthetic petroleum-based feedstock, not based on drilled petroleum products.
  • It is easy to recycle the used product, which means it has high levels of biodegradation.
  • It meets aquatic toxicity standards (EL/LL50 OECD 201, 202, 203). This product was tested with fingerling rainbow trout, daphnia, freshwater algae, and Mysid shrimp, and the results showed zero mortality or toxicity after four days of testing.

Choose EAL lubricants to protect the environment
There are a lot of products out there that claim to be better for the environment. But EAL lubricants are the only ones that meet specific standards and criteria to reduce environmental harm. If a product does not meet EAL standards, it’s known as an EFL (Environmentally Friendly Lubricant). These products have some redeemable qualities that make them better for the environment, but they meet the same standards as EALs.

We know that transitioning to alternative lubricants isn’t easy. But many EAL products, like the Clarity Synthetic Hydraulic oil, still offer excellent protection and performance for your equipment. They are made using more sustainable materials and designed to be safer for the environment. So if you want to make a greener choice, ask your Greg’s Petroleum representative about EAL products or our renewable fuels that will work for your needs!​​