New Lubricants Needed for New Fuel Types

Jean-Philippe Roman said traditional lubricants won't work with new fuel types

As ship operators switch away from heavy fuel oil bunkers to liquefied natural gas (LNG) and other fuels to meet upcoming emission regulations, they will also need new types of lubricants, Total Lubmarine technical director Jean-Philippe Roman has told Platts.

Roman said the adoption of either LNG or distillate fuel as a solution for compliance with new regulations on sulfur emissions will force vessels to use lubricants that do not contain calcium carbonates, a component of lubricants used in conventional engines that run on heavy fuel oil.

Another challenge is finding a lubricant mix that will work in dual-fuel engines capable of switching between heavy fuel oil and one of the other fuel types.

Developing that mix is one of Total's key goals for the next few years, he said.

The company is also working to develop a single cylinder oil lubricant that could reduce problems in two-type lubricant mixes, and it expects to launch the new product in 2015.

Despite the focus on adapting to LNG and distillate fuels, he said there is continuing uncertainty about the future markets, since global supply infrastructure for LNG bunkering is not yet in place and the current attractive prices for LNG could change.

In coming years, Roman said he expects that most ships will continue using heavy fuel oil, with significant use of distillates in emissions control areas (ECAs) where limits on the sulfur content of fuel will drop to 0.10 percent in 2015.

Total is working toward a universal lubricant that can work with different fuels, while competitor Castrol Marine is developing different grades of lubricants for high- and low-sulfur fuels, according to a report last year in marine technology news site The Motorship.