Lubricants
On December 19th 2013 the new ‘United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Vessel General Permit (VGP)’ came into effect. This placed new restrictions on the use and discharge of lubricants used on board commercial vessels which operate in US coastal waters. On December 19 2014, this scheme was extended to include small vessels (sVGP).
The VGP provides guidance on three levels for lubricants:
The VGP provides guidance on three levels for lubricants:
1. All lubricants which are used in an oil-sea interface must be environmentally friendly and in compliance with the EPA’s VGP guidelines or compliant with an approved international eco-labelling scheme, unless technically infeasible.
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Vessel discharges which must comply with this new requirement include:
• Controllable Pitch Propeller and Thruster Hydraulics, and discharges from:
- Paddle Wheel Propulsion
- Stern Tubes
- Thruster Bearings - Stabilizers
- Rudder Bearings
- Azimuth Thrusters
- Propulsion Pod Lubrication
- Wire Rope
- Mechanical Equipment Subject to Immersion
2. EPA strongly encourages the use of Environmentally Acceptable Lubricants (EALs) in all above deck equipment.
3. Where vessels utilize two stroke engines, EALs must be used unless technically infeasible.
The VGP defines environmentally acceptable lubricants as lubricants that are ‘Biodegradable’, ‘Minimally-toxic’ and ‘Not Bioaccumulative’.
VGP allows for the use of vegetable esters, synthetic esters, polyalkylene glycols and biodegradable olefins that are in compliance with existing international eco-labelling schemes. Products registered against:
- European Eco-label
- Blue Angel
- Nordic Swan Swedish Standards SS 155434 and 155470
- Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR)
- EPA’s Design for the Environment (DfE)
are acceptable for use in VGP marine applications, even though the criteria used to define an environmentally acceptable lubricant under these schemes differ from the VGP definition.
We have a long and distinguished history in the development of base oils for all major ecolabel schemes around the world. The selection of base oils should be dependent on the viscosity and oxidation stability requirements for your specific marine application. If your specific requirements are not able to be met with our standard range of products, please contact us and we will endeavour to meet your requirements, either by selecting products from our extended product range, or through new product development.