Environmentally adapted lubricants in Swedish forest industry - a critical review and case study

During the last ten years, a gradual conversion from mineral oil based hydraulic fluids to environmentally adapted lubricants (EALs), has taken place in the forest industry in Sweden. The current market share of the EALs is ca. 80 percent of the mobile hydraulic fluids utilised. The original driving force of this change can be traced to end-user demands, especially paper and pulp consumers in Germany. The Swedish standard SS 15 54 34 was in 1997 supplemented with environmental criteria derived from the "Ren Smorja" ("Clean Lubrication") environmental project in the city of Goteborg. The reliable third-party validation offered by SP (Swedish National Testing and Research Institute), the present stewards of the "Clean Lubrication" list, has proven to be another important factor. By comparison to the German Blue Angel Eco-labelling scheme, the Swedish SP-list approval is somewhat easier to attain, and has provided a flexible base for the development of new products.