Bio versus Mineral Hydraulic Oil in Forklifts : Life Cycle Assessment with Different Waste Scenarios and a Market Analysis

Sammanfattning: Hydraulic oils are today most often based on mineral oil and thus eventuate in environmental and climate impacts during all its life cycle phases, but there are bio-based alternatives. Hy- draulic oils are widely used in forklifts, and the use of forklifts is increasing due to logistics within e-commerce. What can be done to reduce the impacts of hydraulic oils and their applications? To answer this question a life cycle assessment was implemented where a mineral-based oil was compared with a bio-based oil. Previous life cycle assessments in this field implies that much of the impacts of hydraulic oils occur during the final life cycle phase. Therefore, to broaden the study, waste oil management in Sweden and Europe was investigated. To gain an understanding of how hydraulic oils are being used, a market analysis directed at the Swedish forklift market was also implemented. The results show that re-refining, i.e. material recycling, is absolutely necessary to reduce impacts from hydraulic oils and to cope with the phasing out of fossil fuels. Re-refining resulted in a 79 % reduction among eight analysed impact categories compared with if the waste oil is processed into fuel and used as an energy source in manufacturing industries. Additionally, the use of bio-based hydraulic oil, in comparison with mineral-based oil, resulted in a 32 % reduction of greenhouse gases. However, it entails implications regarding other environmental impact categories, mostly connected to the cultivation of oil-rich plants from which these are derived. Which must be improved to ensure more sustainable cultivation of such crops. When it comes to awareness of hydraulics oil within the material handling market, the hydraulic oil in a forklift is not something forklift buyers pay much attention to today. Although, something that is considered important is the environmental labeling of the oil because it has a symbolic value and ensures that it meets environmental requirements. The findings in this study, together with results from similar studies, emphasize that no solution solves all environmental challenges because new ones will always occur. However, it highlights essential keystones regarding how the transition towards a more sustainable hydraulic oil management should proceed and that focus must be directed at the entire life cycle, especially at re-refining of waste oils.