BIODEGRADABLE GREASE TECHNOLOGY FOR FUTURE ARMY COMBAT SYSTEMS

Environmental safety and compliance has recently become the most significant worldwide issue. Over the past decades, many Army installations throughout the United States have been contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbon-based fuels and lubricants. The generation of the potentially hazardous wastes by Petroleum, Oil, and Lubricant (POL) products not only cause both short and long term liability with respect to environmental damage, but can result in deteriorated mission performance and high cleanup costs. For this reason, the Army is currently soliciting a technology that can be used to minimize waste stream of POL products utilized in the current and Future Combat Systems. This paper presents the results of development of Army’s biodegradable greases, laboratory biodegradation tests, and field demonstrations including bioremediation tests