Ship&Offshore | Issue GreenTech/2018
Research project on EALs completed
A joint development project between classification society ABS, Vickers Oil and Imperial College London has completed a study into the use of environmentally acceptable lubricants (EALs) on stern tube bearings. The project focused on the properties of EALs compared with mineral oil-based lubricants and found that viscosity is a key factor in choosing an EAL. Although the viscosity of EALs is more stable than that of mineral oils with respect to temperature, EALs demonstrate lower pressure-viscosity coefficients, indicating that they may form thinner oil films which could be insufficient to protect surfaces from wear under edge-loading conditions....