scope:

This Technical Report gives information about bio-lubricants and recommendations for bio-lubricant (and biobased lubricant) related terminology. These recommendations are based on a discussion of commonly used terms in this field.

This Technical Report also briefly describes the current test methods in relation to the characterization of biolubricants. It presents recommendations for related standards in the field of biodegradability, product functionality, impact on greenhouse gas emissions and the amount of different renewable raw materials and/or different bio-based contents used during manufacturing of such bio-lubricants forming one product group.

The criteria of the European Ecolabel for Lubricants ("EEL") [2] include the terms discussed in this paper.

NOTE 1 The European Lead Market Initiative ("LMI") [3] defines the term "bio-based" as described in Table 1. It is important to mention that "bio-based" does not imply "biodegradable". In addition, "biodegradable" does not imply the use of "bio-based" material.

NOTE 2 For the purposes of this European Technical Report, the term "% (m/m)" is used to represent the mass fraction.