Evaluation of sustainability of lubricants by life cycle assessment and carbon footprint measurement
- 1Natural Product and Polymer Chemistry Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, University of North Bengal
- 2Koehler Instrument Company
Abstract
The global increasing awareness of sustainability has greatly affected the traditional lubricant market. The goals to reduce environmental pollution have increased the use of biolubricants rather petroleum based ones significantly due to several harmful impacts of the later including non-biodegradability, higher carbon emissions and bio-toxic wastes. In this review, a comparative analysis of biolubricants (soybean and rapeseed oils lubricants) with mineral and synthetic lubricants was performed with respect to their life cycle assessment (LCA) and carbon footprint (CFP) measurement. While bio-lubricants excel in biodegradability and global warming potential (GWP) reduction, they often have higher local impacts, especially in acidification potential (AP) and eutrophication potential (EP), due to the agricultural production phase. Although rapeseed lubricants imparted the lowest GWP, it showed a majority in the affected impact categories like acidification potential (AP), carcinogenics, respiratory effects (RE), eutrophication, ecotoxicity and photochemical smog (PS). Soybean oil based lubricants showed the lowest impact in most of the categories among the different types of lubricants, except for eutrophication potential and photochemical smog, for which mineral lubricants are the lowest. Considering the CFP, biobased lubricants are far more environmentally sound compared to mineral and synthetic lubricants. Their lower carbon emissions pave the way for a cleaner future, replacing the dependence on traditional petroleum-based lubricants.
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BibTeX
@article{karmakar2026evaluation,
title = {{Evaluation of sustainability of lubricants by life cycle assessment and carbon footprint measurement}},
author = {Gobinda Karmakar and Raj Shah and Mathew S. Roshan and Pranab Ghosh},
journal = {Discover Environment},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1007/s44274-026-01131-2},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s44274-026-01131-2},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Evaluation of sustainability of lubricants by life cycle assessment and carbon footprint measurement
AU - Gobinda Karmakar
AU - Raj Shah
AU - Mathew S. Roshan
AU - Pranab Ghosh
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/25
JO - Discover Environment
DO - 10.1007/s44274-026-01131-2
UR - https://doi.org/10.1007/s44274-026-01131-2
AB - The global increasing awareness of sustainability has greatly affected the traditional lubricant market. The goals to reduce environmental pollution have increased the use of biolubricants rather petroleum based ones significantly due to several harmful impacts of the later including non-biodegradability, higher carbon emissions and bio-toxic wastes. In this review, a comparative analysis of biolubricants (soybean and rapeseed oils lubricants) with mineral and synthetic lubricants was performed with respect to their life cycle assessment (LCA) and carbon footprint (CFP) measurement. While bio-lubricants excel in biodegradability and global warming potential (GWP) reduction, they often have higher local impacts, especially in acidification potential (AP) and eutrophication potential (EP), due to the agricultural production phase. Although rapeseed lubricants imparted the lowest GWP, it showed a majority in the affected impact categories like acidification potential (AP), carcinogenics, respiratory effects (RE), eutrophication, ecotoxicity and photochemical smog (PS). Soybean oil based lubricants showed the lowest impact in most of the categories among the different types of lubricants, except for eutrophication potential and photochemical smog, for which mineral lubricants are the lowest. Considering the CFP, biobased lubricants are far more environmentally sound compared to mineral and synthetic lubricants. Their lower carbon emissions pave the way for a cleaner future, replacing the dependence on traditional petroleum-based lubricants.
SN - 2731-9431
ER -