Harvesting Lubricants
By Jessica Nelson

After years of barely breaking even, Bruning Grain and Feed, a 50-year-old grain elevator in rural Nebraska, knew that it needed to do more than market corn, grain and soybeans. Crop sales alone would not ensure its survival in the increasingly concentrated agricultural industry. In 1994, Bruning Grain and Feed (which is owned by 150 shareholders, most of whom are farmers) invested $500,000 in a value-added venture—equipment to build its own mechanical extrusion soybean processing plant. The plant produces a high-quality extruded-expelled soybean meal, used for animal feed purposes, and Soy Bio-Drip, a pump lubricant for center-pivot irrigation systems.

Pump lubricant is used to keep irrigation systems working smoothly: a small amount of the oil continually drips through the system and travels down the vertical line shaft to lubricate the bearings. Bruning Grain and Feed estimates that in Nebraska alone more than 700,000 gallons of drip oil may be lost to the environment each year, possibly contaminating groundwater sources or causing other environmental harm. The elevator began selling its soy-based drip oil—a product that is readily biodegradable and much less toxic to aquatic life than petroleum products—locally in 1998, and has more than doubled its sales in the last year. The company recently formed a marketing partnership with GEMTEK Products (Phoenix, Arizona) to supply the soy oil used in GEMTEK’s line of industrial lubricants. Business at the elevator is thriving. Some of their fellow merchants have not been so lucky: since 1994 the number of grain elevators in Nebraska has fallen from 251 to 185.

As the Bruning Grain and Feed example illustrates, plant-based lubricants hold great promise for farmers. Cars, elevators, lawnmowers, chainsaws, railroad tracks, bikes and numerous other types of equipment depend on lubricants for smooth operation, and vegetable oil-based lubricants are emerging as environmentally friendly, high-performance alternatives to petroleum-based lubricants.

Background
The U.S. alone consumed 2.5 billion gallons of lubricants in 1997.(1) Fifty-four percent of these were automotive lubricants (such as engine oil and transmission fluid) and forty-four percent were industrial lubricants (such as hydraulic fluid and gear oil).

Three main types of lubricants make up today’s market. Petroleum oil-based lubricants (also called mineral oils) are derived from crude oil, and make up the vast majority of the lubricants sold today. Synthetic lubricants have been synthesized from intermediate petrochemicals to possess a range of high-performance attributes, often including biodegradability. Based on information from Hewin International, they account for 1.8 percent of today’s lubricant market. Plant-based lubricants can be derived from a range of vegetable oils and are inherently biodegradable and low in toxicity. As this industry is still in the development stage, its current market share is low: Frost & Sullivan, a marketing analyst group, places it at less than one percent of the U.S. market.(2)

At the end of the 1800s and for thousands of years before that time, however, vegetable oils and animal fats served as lubricants. The rise of petroleum in the early 1900s, with its low crude oil prices and extensive transportation infrastructure, gave the economic advantage to petroleum-based lubricants, which quickly dominated the market.

This trend is shifting. At the same time that the harmful effects of petroleum on environmental and human health have become more obvious, high-performance vegetable oil-based lubricants are being developed and marketed. While the overall lubricants market is predicted to remain fairly steady, Frost & Sullivan forecasts that the biodegradable lubricants market will increase by 6.8 percent in 2000. Both plant-based and synthetic lubricants have the potential to capture this market.

At least 13 independent North American companies and cooperatives are commercially producing plant-based lubricants. These groups face the daunting task of introducing a new product into a market dominated by huge petroleum companies. Globally, the top three lubricant producers—Shell, Exxon/Mobil and BP Amoco (who recently purchased Burmah Castrol)—hold at least 50 percent of the lubricant market. Interestingly, these companies do produce lubricants containing varying percentages of vegetable oil, although their focus remains petroleum-based products.

In order to ensure success, plant-based lubricant manufacturers must address a number of existing concerns, including negative industry preconceptions about plant-based lubricants (based on earlier and less successful technologies), unresolved questions about performance standards and testing protocols and the direction of governmental policy.

A Variety of Vegetable Oils
When it comes to lubricant production, vegetable oils are not all created equally. The most commonly used vegetable oils are rapeseed (a relative of North American canola), soy and sunflower. As Mark Miller, CEO of Terresolve Technologies (Eastlake, Ohio) states, “Every vegetable oil is a creature unto itself. You have to understand how to make each do what you want it to do.”

Rapeseed, a crop widely grown in Europe, is the primary type of vegetable oil used for lubricants in the European market. In response to early environmental mandates implemented by certain European countries—Germany and the Alpine region in particular—years of research have been focused on developing the performance characteristics of rapeseed oil. As a result, this oil has also made the most headway in the slowly emerging North American market. Frost & Sullivan estimates that, of the vegetable oil used for lubricant production in the U.S., 85 percent is canola oil and 15 percent soy and other oils such as sunflower.

U.S. domestic production of rapeseed is small. Soybeans, on the other hand, are produced in abundance—so much so that their price is at a thirteen-year low. If soy-based lubricants could capture even ten percent of the industrial oils market, for example, an additional 110 million gallons of soy oil would be used (about 5 percent of current production), increasing demand and potentially prices. Researchers also continue to experiment with crops such as safflower and castor.

The Advantages
Vegetable oils have a number of inherent qualities that give them advantages over petroleum oils as the feedstock for lubricants. Because vegetable oils are derived from a renewable resource, their use avoids the upstream pollution associated with petroleum extraction and refining. Unlike mineral oils, which can persist in the environment for years, vegetable oils are readily biodegradable. They are also low in toxicity and do not harm aquatic organisms and surrounding vegetation. These qualities are particularly important for lubricants used in environmentally sensitive areas such as marine ecosystems, and for those with a high potential of being lost to the surrounding environment.

From a worker safety perspective, plant-based lubricants are more attractive than their petroleum counterparts because of their relative low toxicity, high flash point and low volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions.

Vegetable oils offer a number of performance advantages as well. They have a naturally high viscosity index and thus don’t thin as readily as petroleum oils in warm temperatures, allowing some lubricants a longer life. Vegetable oils possess superior natural lubricity—the ability to reduce friction—which results in less equipment wear.

In addition to their physical advantages, plant-based lubricants hold great potential for rural economic development. Farmers could benefit not only from increased demand for vegetable oils but also, and more significantly, from collective ownership of a company manufacturing value-added products. Bruning Grain and Feed is one example; another group of farmers profiting from plant-based lubricant production is West Central Cooperative, a 3500-member farmer co-op in Ralston, Iowa.

Performance Issues
Along with the advantages, there have traditionally been a number of technical concerns with the performance of vegetable oil-based lubricants. The two main issues are operational temperature limitations and oxidative instability. In cold weather, vegetable oils have the tendency to solidify more readily than do petroleum products, giving them a higher pour point (the temperature at which the lubricant can still be poured). In conditions of extreme heat, they are subject to oxidation, a chemical reaction that causes the oil to break down and reduces its functioning capacity.

In addressing these concerns, researchers have developed a number of plant-based lubricants that meet or exceed the performance expectations of petroleum lubricants. Current approaches include reformulating additives, chemically modifying the vegetable base oil and genetically modifying the oilseed crop.

Additive Reformulation: A lubricant consists of a base oil (usually 75 to 90 percent) and an additive package designed to improve performance characteristics such as oxidative stability, pour point and viscosity index. In the past, it was assumed that additives designed for mineral oil lubricants perform similarly when used with vegetable oils. This led to the production of technically inferior plant-based lubricants. Many of the industry’s negative opinions of plant-based lubricants stem from these early products. More recently, companies have started reformulating and/or designing additives specifically for vegetable oils with successful results.

Some companies use additives derived from petrochemical sources. Other companies have developed purely plant-based additive packages. GEMTEK, which produces a full line of total loss lubricants and hydraulic fluids, uses vegetable seed oil telomers, other seed esters and rarified waxy substances as additives. Badger Oil (Spooner, Wisconsin), a company still in the development stage, has licensed a patented technology from the German company TESSOL GmbH that also produces additives from plant sources.

Chemical Modification of the Base Oil: Various patented and proprietary technologies are based on this approach. The University of Northern Iowa’s Ag-Based Industrial Lubricants program uses hydrogenation and other chemical processes to increase the oxidative stability of soybean oil. Lubricants of this type are marketed by West Central Cooperative. Through a proprietary technology called XBO (short for experimental base oil), Terresolve Technologies chemically modifies soy and canola oils to produce commercially available hydraulic fluids and two-stroke engine oils.

Genetic Modification: Certain oils such as soy, which in their crude form may not possess traits ideal for lubricant production—crude soybean oil being one of the least oxidatively stable vegetable oils—are the subject of research aimed at enhancing and/or adding favorable traits through genetic modification. Proponents say that, in addition to making the oil more usable for lubricant applications, modification can reduce the need for additional additives and/or manufacturing steps. A high-oleic variety of soybeans, originally modified for food purposes, is already in use by some companies for lubricant production. High-oleic canola oil is also used. Researchers are exploring further modifications specifically for lubricant production.

There are divergent opinions on this approach, however. Public concern over the environmental and human health effects of genetic modification has caused some to view the issue warily. Kim Kristoff, president of GEMTEK, does not believe that genetically modified oils are necessary to achieve the company’s high performance goals for lubricants. To enhance performance traits, GEMTEK instead looks to its plant-based additive package and uses a mechanically expelled soy oil, which is more highly clarified and oxidatively stable than chemically extracted oil.

Cost
Cost varies with specific application, but in general plant-based lubricants are 2 to 2.5 times more expensive than mineral oils, and half as much as synthetic lubricants. The price differential between plant-based and mineral oil lubricants is attributable both to the higher raw material cost of vegetable base oils and to more costly additives. According to Mark Miller, CEO of Terresolve, vegetable base oils are in the range of $1.90 to $2.30 per gallon (soy oil at the lower end in the U.S. and canola at the higher), whereas petroleum base oils cost $1.20 to $1.40 per gallon. The additives Terresolve uses with vegetable oils are approximately five times the cost of those used for petroleum-based lubricants.

To compare costs for hydraulic fluids: synthetic biodegradable fluids are in the $25-35 per gallon range; vegetable-based fluids average $13 per gallon; and high-quality petroleum fluids cost $7-8 per gallon. Other vegetable oil-based products, such as railroad flange oils and cutting oils, come much closer to mineral oil lubricants in price.

Purchase price, however, is not an accurate measure of overall cost. Because vegetable oil-based lubricants evaporate less quickly and adhere better to metal surfaces, end users often use less product per application. Other cost benefits associated with vegetable oils may include reductions in environmental and safety penalties in the case of spills, parts wear and maintenance costs and disposal fees. As is the case with many plant-based products, once factors such as these are considered, plant-based lubricants appear to be competitive in cost with petroleum oils.

Industrial Oils
The majority of companies manufacturing plant-based lubricants have focused primarily on industrial oils. Within this category, certain applications are better suited for plant-based lubricants—these include, but are not limited to, total loss lubricants and hydraulic fluids.

Total Loss Lubricants: Total loss lubricants are those lost directly to the environment during use. Specific applications include two-stroke engine oils, chainsaw bar and chain oils, railroad flange oils and greases, drip oils, wire rope lubricants, dust suppressant and marine lubricants. Because these types of lubricants pose immediate harm to the surrounding environment, there is increasing regulatory pressure to seek biodegradable and less toxic alternatives. Many countries in Europe already require biodegradable lubricants to be used in selected applications.

Two-stroke engine oil, for example, is used in equipment such as lawnmowers, boats, jet skis and some motorcycles. As the engine runs, unburned or partially burnt oil is released directly to the environment, sending plumes of smoke into the air and forming an oily sheen on the water. In the case of boat engines and jet skis, petroleum oils pollute the water and harm aquatic life. Lawn mowers release oil that can kill surrounding vegetation, causing brown spots and requiring costly remediation. Vegetable oil-based alternatives do not pose these threats to the environment—they significantly reduce equipment emissions, and the fluid that is released readily biodegrades and is low in toxicity. In addition, manufacturers of vegetable oil-based two-cycle engine oils point to increased engine life. Chainsaw bar and chain oils are another example of a total loss lubricant. In the process of chainsaw use, these lubricants are flung from the machine. Mineral oils used in this application contaminate the surrounding environment and create a human health hazard. Vegetable oils are much safer, both for workers and the environment. In July 1999 a plant-based chainsaw oil manufactured by Badger Oil was used in the environmentally sensitive Boundary Waters Canoe Area of Minnesota for clean-up efforts after a major storm.

Hydraulic Fluids: A number of companies offer vegetable oil-based hydraulic fluids. Though not total loss lubricants, hydraulic fluids have been classified as “high risk loss” lubricants—they are used in large volumes in equipment that is susceptible to spills. Vegetable oil-based hydraulic fluids, again, are much less dangerous to the environment and involve less expense during clean-up.

In 1996, a costly 25-gallon hydraulic oil spill from a street sweeper prompted Sandia National Laboratories (SNL, Albuquerque, New Mexico) to look for alternatives. SNL initiated a pilot program to test a soy-based hydraulic fluid. The product, BioSoy (developed by the UNI’s ABIL program and marketed by West Central Cooperative), was tested in 20 mobile hydraulic machines, including sweepers, garage trucks, fork lifts, motor graders, front end loaders, a soil probe and others. SNL now uses BioSoy in all hydraulic equipment in its fleet.

For similar reasons, Johnson & Johnson has made it a world-wide company policy to use a canola-based hydraulic fluid (made by HydroSafe Oil Division of East Lansing, Michigan) in their hydraulic elevators.

Automotive Lubricants
Automotive engine oil presents a huge market opportunity, but tough performance requirements and the low price of petroleum alternatives make this a difficult market to enter. Two companies, however, are selling plant-based automotive engine oils. Agro Management Group (AMG) derives its product (called AMG2000) from canola, soy and various other vegetable oils, and Renewable Lubricants, Inc. (RLI) uses canola, sunflower, soy and corn oils. In field testing conducted by AMG and the U.S. Postal Service in Michigan, AMG2000 performed as well as conventional engine oil and had the added advantages of emitting significantly fewer toxic air emissions and achieving greater fuel efficiency.

Another extremely successful automotive lubricant that contains plant materials is International Lubricant Inc.’s (ILI) Lubegard™ automatic transmission fluid supplement, available through NAPA automotive stores. Although ILI produces a full line of plant-based lubricants (including total loss lubricants, hydraulic fluids and others), 90 percent of the company’s sales come from Lubegard™. Lubegard™ is based on liquid wax ester technology, a technology that links the fatty acid of high erucic rapeseed oil with alcohol to form a linear liquid wax. This substance is similar to the sperm whale oil used as a transmission additive until 1972 and has superior wear and other performance characteristics.

Widespread acceptance of plant-based automotive lubricants depends to some extent on the issue of certification. Currently, automotive engine manufacturers require that motor oils meet standards set by the American Petroleum Institute (API). This is a costly process involving testing methodologies that have been developed over the last century for petroleum-derived lubricants. The industry is divided on this issue. Mark Miller of Terresolve believes that every vegetable oil-based lubricant should meet the same testing protocols as petroleum lubricants. He sees the establishment of separate standards for vegetable oils as a detriment to the plant-based lubricant industry. AMG, on the other hand, is attempting to establish a new testing protocol for vegetable oil-based motor oil with the help of Savant Inc., an independent testing laboratory that has developed testing methods for the API and the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). One industry representative calls vegetable oils a “completely different science”: and in fact vegetable oil-based lubricants have performance characteristics that aren’t incorporated into the existing petroleum testing protocol.

Policy: Driver for Success
Europe is said to be at least ten years ahead of the U.S. in terms of plant-based lubricant sales and acceptance, and many attribute this directly to legislation.

Although European-wide legislation addressing the use of lubricants does not currently exist, certain countries have taken the lead in mandating biolubricants (vegetable oil-based lubricants as well as some synthetics) in place of mineral oils. According to Frost & Sullivan, the main biolubricants sold in the European market are, in order of market share: hydraulic fluids (67 percent), chainsaw oils (14 percent), niche oils (12 percent, including gear oils, two-stroke engine oils, and cutting oils), and concrete release agents (7 percent).

Germany holds the largest share of the biolubricants market in Europe at 45 percent. Of the biolubricants sold there, 70 percent are based on rapeseed oil.(3) The country’s strong environmental policy has largely prohibited the use of mineral oils in chainsaw lubricants and on inland waterways. Switzerland imposed the first regulations for biodegradable two-stroke engine oils in lakes.(4) Austria has a policy in place that inhibits the use of petroleum-based chainsaw oils. Both Portugal and Belgium mandate the use of biodegradable lubricants in outboard boat engines.(5)

Ecolabeling for lubricants is common across Europe. Examples include Germany’s Blue Angel ecolabel. The Nordic Swan label of the Scandinavian countries also promotes environmentally friendly lubricating oils, awarding credits for products derived from renewable resources. In the case of chain oil, mould oil and metal cutting fluid, only products based on renewable resources will qualify. Canada’s Environmental Choice Program also includes lubricants and has a separate category for vegetable oil-based and synthetic lubricants. The Green Seal program of the U.S. at this time does not include criteria for lubricants.

U.S. governmental regulatory policy has lagged behind Europe. There are no federal regulations specifically pertaining to the production and usage of biodegradable lubricants in place of petroleum oils. Although there are a handful of state and regional ordinances in place that may discourage the use of petroleum oil lubricants, particularly in marine applications, the regulations are not consistent, nor are they widely mandated or enforced.(6) Regulations regarding oil spills and remediation also vary and are inconsistently implemented.

A different type of policy initiative has been explored in the U.S., however. President Clinton has signed several executive orders that call for expanding the production and use of biobased products, including lubricants. The executive orders aim to increase governmental procurement of these products and provide additional financial assistance for their development. Many hope that increased federal procurement will allow plant-based lubricant companies to more successfully move into the consumer market.

On the state level, Iowa and Michigan have implemented similar policies. Rather than restrict the use of petroleum-based lubricants, these states, recognizing the value of products derived from renewable resources, have implemented procurement mandates for plant-based lubricants. Iowa Senate File 2249 encourages state agencies to use soybean-based lubricants. Michigan House Concurrent Resolution 34 mandates the use of vegetable oil-based engine oil. While these types of policies are not binding, supporters say they are valuable as a first step in making consumers more aware of the plant-based alternatives available and in establishing field results for product performance.

Plant-Based Lubricatns: The Future
Though the plant-based lubricant industry is young, particularly in North America, it has made much progress in the last five years. The negative preconceptions associated with earlier and less developed technologies are gradually being laid to rest as the industry proves that plant-based lubricants meet and exceed the performance of petroleum-based alternatives. Through continued collaboration with equipment manufacturers, end users and other lubricant manufacturers, the industry can ensure that performance standards and testing protocols do not put vegetable oil-based lubricants at an unfair disadvantage. Standards for environmental attributes such as biodegradability and toxicity must be clearly established and incorporated into the mainstream, both in terms of consumer expectations and regulatory action. Governmental policy that rewards the range of benefits offered by plant-based lubricants must be pursued.

Ideally, manufacturers, policymakers and others involved in building the market for plant-based lubricants will encourage the involvement of farmers. As farmer ownership of lubricant manufacturing grows, rural communities will reap the benefits that plant-based lubricants offer. ß



NOTES
1 National Petrochemical Refiners Association
2 Frost & Sullivan citations are taken from their two reports, U.S. Biodegradable Lubricant Markets (1999) and European Biolubricant Markets (2000). For more information, contact Cara Shevlin, 210-348-1018 (phone), 210-348-1003 (fax), cshevlin@frost.com (email).
3 Frost & Sullivan, 1999 figures
4 A. Igartua, “Vegetable Oils: Lifecycle of seed obtention and production, behavior during use, biodegradability and toxicity, recycling,” available at http://www.dainet.de/fnr/ctvo/lubricants/Igartua.doc
5 Frost & Sullivan
6 Personal communication with Jim Martin, market development manager at Omni Tech International.

A publication of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance