This Technical Report gives information about bio-lubricants and recommendations for bio-lubricant (and bio-based lubricant) related terminology. These recommendations are based on a discussion of commonly used terms in this field.
This Technical Report also briefly describes the current test methods in relation to the characterization of bio-lubricants. It presents recommendations for related standards in the field of biodegradability, product functionality, impact on greenhouse gas emissions and the amount of different renewable raw materials and/or different bio-based contents used during manufacturing of such bio-lubricants forming one product group.
The criteria of the European Ecolabel for Lubricants (“EEL??) [2] include the terms discussed in this paper.
NOTE 1 The European Lead Market Initiative (“LMI??) [3] defines the term “bio-based?? as described in Table 1. It is important to mention that “bio-based?? does not imply “biodegradable??. In addition, “biodegradable?? does not imply the use of “bio-based?? material.
NOTE 2 For the purposes of this European Technical Report, the term “% (m/m)?? is used to represent the mass fraction.