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23rd International Colloquium Tribology
After the effective entry of the omicron variant in Europe, resulting in a significant increase in infections in Germany, the TAE organization decided to keep the event but in a virtual way to preserve the safety of all its participants, thus being the first completely virtual event of the colloquium.
Despite the above-mentioned adverse circumstances, the 23rd International Colloquium Tribology that took place from 25th to 27th January 2022 was a complete success, with the participation of more than 300 people, with 140 contributions in 6 live parallel sessions.
IQLubricants contributed to the event for the first time with a presentation led by Dr. Maria del Mar Combarros (IQLubricants Application Manager) entitled “An experimental study of the effect of thermal aging on the lubrication performance of Environmental Acceptable Lubricants (EALs)”.
On the first day, Dr. Lindemann delighted us with his traditional presentation reviewing market situation and main trends. In there, he mentioned how global lubricant demand is stabilized at the figure of 36.6 million tons in 2020 (number without Marine Oils), recovering from the great drop suffered in 2009 (31.9 million tons). Within the global figures, it is seen how Asia-Pacific contributes to increasing the global figure while in Europe, driven by Germany, the demand decreases 9% last year. Asia-Pacific is increasing not only in volume but also in quality, which is made possible by E-Mobility.
Figure 1. Demand by region without Marine (Source Fuchs)
Figure 2. Demand by region without Marine (Source Fuchs)
In it, he also exposed the main challenges that the lubricants industry must lead, and classified them into four blocks: Globalization, Digitization, Mobility and Sustainability.
The important technological transformation of the sector will have a negative impact on the volume demanded. It is estimated that in an internal combustion engine its consumption at first filling is 25.1 kg/passenger car while for a battery electric vehicle its consumption drops to 17.8 kg/passenger car.
This technological transformation will be accelerated in the coming years, considering that in most European countries ICE will be banned in 2030 - 2040. Consequently, and assuming that 5 million BEVs/year will be manufactured, Dr. Lindemann interprets that the automotive lubricants market will suffer a reduction of 25 - 30%.
It will also have an important impact on the availability of petrochemical raw materials due to 110 million tons reduction in fuel demand forcing refiners to adjust their landscape, in case the technology will not be adapted.
On the other hand, the EU green agreement that promotes the chemical strategy for sustainability and towards a toxic-free environment, forces the sector to access organic products coming from renewable and biologic sources with limited availability and rising prices.
A large part of the contributions were from the academic world, which once again makes important efforts to contribute knowledge to a sector that has to face major technological changes for the sake of sustainability.
Most of the presentations were focused in one way or another on improving the sustainability of the planet, through optimization, friction reduction, increasing the life of the lubricant, among others; confirming the important technological changes that the sector is projecting.
In conclusion, it has been once again a very technical and interesting colloquium in which the sector has shared the advances of each entity that constitute the sector: universities, technology centers, suppliers of raw materials, formulators, OEMs and maintenance; with the aim of developing new technologies in a coordinated manner that make it possible to meet the common objectives set by change and ecological transition.
See you then next time in 2024 at the 24th International Colloquium Tribology, hopefully this time in person.
February 2022.