Pressure to perform: future-proofing hydraulic fluids
Charlotte Edwards, Marketing Specialist, Industrial, Afton Chemical Ltd
While many hydraulic trends are long-standing, a new pressure is poised to bring fundamental change to the industrial fluids market. The European Green Deal is set to bring significant change to the chemical industry making chemicals much more challenging and expensive to import, handle and use within Europe. Restrictions on the use of high hazard substances and the requirements to increase circularity and reduce carbon footprint bring challenges to existing well-established lubricant formulations. Afton believes that now is the time for hydraulic fluid manufacturers to work with their base oil and additive suppliers to develop and test future-proof solutions, to ensure that fluid portfolios remain appropriately labelled and focused on end-user needs.
The winds of change that shape the industrial lubricant landscape have blown in a fairly constant direction over the years. Manufacturing continues its geographic shift eastwards, while higher levels of production and an ever-increasing population drive growth in energy demand. Global OEM Performance Standards are still shaped by the end-user need for ever greater efficiency, reliability and durability, while for Top Tier applications the movement towards higher quality base stocks continues. In addition to this, oil marketers and end-users are looking to re-refined base oils (RRBO) and biodegradable oils to use in more environmentally sensitive applications.
Evolving Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) legislation has always been a consideration for this market but, with Europe poised for regulatory change regarding chemical imports, handling and use, this is set to have a more significant impact on lubricant formulation.
Spotlight on hydraulics
As one of the largest single lubricant segments, accounting for 40% of the global industrial lubricants market (according to data provided by Kline + Company), hydraulic fluids deserve particular attention. These additional regulatory pressures are bringing further challenges at a time when the performance demand on hydraulic fluids is still increasing.
Several major macro trends continue to influence fluid development and the additives needed to support performance requirements. These are reflected in pump OEM fluid approvals, such as the Bosch Rexroth
Fluid Rating, which has become the gold standard for hydraulic fluid performance.
New pressures
Still focused on lowering the total cost of ownership, equipment end-users are examining every option. Longer periods of operation and the desire for extended service intervals are creating more severe working conditions on hydraulic systems operating under higher pressure and with smaller sump sizes. Resulting in faster oxidation of the fluid, leakages or wear of critical pump parts experienced by end-user.
These all make greater performance demands on the hydraulic fluid. Base oil compatibility and flexibility are also proving important, with questions around whether traditional Group I will be the dominant base oil used in the future.
Against this challenging backdrop, the need to reduce environmental impact brings further complexity to the market. For example, there is already demand for alternative zinc-free additives and fluids, with the latest top tier zinc-free fluids offering enhanced performance versus their zinc-containing predecessors.
Zinc is not the only component that has come under increased scrutiny. Four years ago, the European Commission (EC) published its chemicals strategy for sustainability as part of the European Green Deal. This strategy includes a number of actions designed to move towards a toxic-free environment and to protect people and the environment from hazardous chemicals. The EC has prepared a ‘Restrictions Roadmap’ for prioritising groups of substances due for restriction under the REACH Regulation.
Groups of chemicals are already under the spotlight in this rapidly changing landscape. Introduction of restriction could potentially start as early as 2028, beyond which placing products containing these chemicals on the market in Europe may not be possible.
Further environmental considerations include not just toxicity concerns but other aspects of sustainability such as the carbon dioxide emissions resulting from production and the sustainable sourcing of bio-derived components. With base oil making up over 99% of hydraulic oils, re-refined or bio-degradable base oils are also likely to play a role in reducing the carbon footprint of finished fluids.
Addressing concerns
Despite the additive packages for mainstream hydraulic fluids tending to have a very low treat-rate compared to other sectors, at just 0.5-1%, any chemical components of concern within the package will need to be highlighted.
The logistics and safe handling of such components, along with risks of restriction within Europe under the new regulations, should be taken into account when determining the best solution. Accurate labelling in accordance with CLP legislation represents part of the duty of care of additive suppliers, ensuring that fluid suppliers can provide full transparency for end-users.
For chemicals to be restricted in such a way as to prevent sale or use of the additive or fluid, the complete removal from a formulation is the only option. In this case, fluid suppliers will need to consider the timeline against which a restriction may enter into force and plan for running down existing stocks of fluid and packaging, as well as allowing sufficient time for designing, developing, testing and approving new formulations.
Looking to the future
Although the restrictions roadmap and its timings are not carved in stone, it is clear that EHS will play a more central role going forwards. EHS expertise and insights should be a priority when discussing and developing future-proof fluid solutions.
Interactions between additives with the base oil must be carefully balanced when striving to deliver desired performance in a new formulation with new chemical components. Additive substitutions are rarely straightforward.
Taking action now
Additive companies (like Afton) will continue to work behind the scenes in partnership with their oil company customers, drawing upon the expertise of experienced in-house EHS teams to identify components that may become chemicals of concern in the future and proactively working to remove them in new product developments.
It takes years to plan, develop, test and approve new fluids, so taking the time now to discuss and begin development will pay dividends in the future. Agreeing to a structured approach that balances cost with performance will result in compliant, clearly labelled products that offer maximum benefit to all parties.
With one eye always on the ever-shifting regulatory horizon, timely collaborations will help oil companies remain poised under pressure in order to deliver high performance fluid technologies with low environmental impacts.
