Project Description

In Europe, the inland consumption of lubricants has been estimated to 5 million tonnes in 2001. More than 95% of the market is dominated by the mineral oils based lubricants, which are contaminating the environment but have a very low price and high availability. As 30% of lubricant used in the industry ends up it the ecosystem, it is very easy to understand why some countries are more and more attracted by the bio-lubricant alternative. Vegetable oils have a number of inherent qualities that give them advantages over petroleum oils as the feedstock for lubricants, but up to now there is low experience in their use and some limitations have to be overcomed.

Therefore, the IBIOLAB project intends to address several needs to enhance the market share of the bio-lubricants, and thus reinforcing the competitiveness of SMEs:

1. Need to improve and better understand the manufacturing processes (immature technologies) in order to decrease the overall cost and improve the properties of bio-lubricants.
2. Need to help the SMEs for the awarding of their products with eco-labels.
3. Need to provide the SMEs knowledge on best practices in lubricant bases, bio-additives and formulation issues.
4. Need for an efficient & widely spread campaign of communication gathering all the actors and potential end users.

Finally, tailored training sessions will be organised by the IAGs and the RTD performers to expand the knowledge base of the SMEs dealing with bio-lubricants.