Japan’s Eneos Corp. plans to produce biobased lubricants and greases made with its proprietary base oils derived from vegetables by 2023, the company announced yesterday.
“We succeeded in developing motor vehicle lubricants, industrial lubricants and grease using base oils derived from vegetables such as sugar cane and soya beans. The [newly developed] base oils are made up of only carbon and hydrogen and we are the first in Japan to succeed in developing lubricants and others using 100% of this base oil,” the company claimed in a press release.
“We will look into the supply of raw materials and production and aim to commercialize it by financial year 2022 [or by March 31, 2023],” it added.
In 2019, the company announced its long-term plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and has been developing lubricants that will reduce carbon dioxide emissions for the product’s life cycle, from the sourcing of raw materials to production, supply chain and disposal.
Eneos said it aims to reduce by 60% or 17 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions by 2040. In October 2020, the Japanese government said that the country will reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.