The honest version
of this page.
Lubricant additives are industrial chemicals. Several of the chemistries in this catalogue carry hazard classifications and none of them are benign. What they do is make machines last longer and run more efficiently, and that is where the argument has to be made — on measurable duty, not on imagery.
It would be easy to put a wind turbine on this page and leave it there. The turbine is real — gearbox oils are one of the most demanding applications this chemistry serves — but a photograph is not an argument.
The defensible claim is narrower and stronger: a well-formulated lubricant extends equipment life, extends drain intervals and reduces the energy lost to friction. Those three effects are measurable, they are what our customers are actually paid for, and they are where an additive supplier can honestly claim to contribute.
Where a chemistry has a regulatory or environmental problem, our position is to say so at the enquiry stage. That includes telling a customer not to specify one of our own grades in a market where it is disfavoured.
Drain interval
The largest environmental lever an additive has is keeping oil in service longer. Doubling a drain interval halves the volume of oil produced, transported and disposed of for the same duty. That is an antioxidant and dispersant problem, and it is measurable in hours on a standardised oxidation test rather than in adjectives.
Fuel and energy economy
A friction modifier that lowers boundary friction lowers energy consumption for the life of the equipment — in an engine, a gearbox, a compressor or an industrial drive. The effect is small per unit and very large in aggregate, and it applies to electric drivetrains as much as combustion ones.
Re-refined and bio-based stocks
Circular base oils and esters are not always drop-in. They can carry different polarity, different additive response and different oxidation behaviour. Components that perform predictably across Group I to Group V and into re-refined stocks are what make a circular base oil commercially usable.
Reformulation under regulatory pressure
Low-SAPS limits, restricted-substance listings and aftertreatment compatibility force European formulators to reformulate on a schedule they do not control. Ashless and phosphorus-free chemistries exist precisely so those reformulations do not have to sacrifice protection.
Not the end of this industry. A redistribution of it.
European passenger-car engine oil demand is in structural decline and will keep declining. Any supplier telling a blender otherwise is not worth listening to. Crankcase dispersants, detergents and a large share of ZDDP volume are exposed to that decline.
What is not exposed: industrial gear oils, hydraulic fluids, greases, metalworking fluids, compressor and turbine oils, and wind-energy driveline lubricants — none of which care what powers the vehicle. Electric drivetrains bring their own requirements: reduction-gear protection, copper compatibility with motor windings, and thermal management fluids that must be electrically non-conductive.
Friction modifiers and metal deactivators are, if anything, more relevant in an electrified fleet than a combustion one. Our catalogue is weighted accordingly.
See the application coverage →- — We do not hold third-party sustainability certification at this stage and do not imply that we do.
- — We do not publish a product carbon footprint we have not measured.
- — Several grades in this catalogue are classified as hazardous to the aquatic environment. That is stated on the safety data sheet and is not softened here.