As part of the pro­ject, the lub­ric­ant for­mu­la­tions and thicken­ers developed will be tested for their bio­de­grad­ab­il­ity under aer­obic con­di­tions. This is to ensure that a pos­sible entry into the envir­on­ment does not res­ult in any neg­at­ive effects.

For this pur­pose, the bio­tech­no­lo­gic­al labor­at­ory of the Fraunhofer Insti­tute UMSICHT has the neces­sary facil­it­ies and is an approved test­ing labor­at­ory for the tests on bio­de­grad­ab­il­ity and com­posta­bil­ity at DIN CERTCO.

The tests are car­ried out accord­ing to estab­lished and stand­ard­ized test pro­ced­ures. Depend­ing on the test meth­od, the bio­de­grad­a­tion of the samples is determ­ined by oxy­gen con­sump­tion or CO2 pro­duc­tion. The tests take place in an aqueous, aer­obic envir­on­ment at 20 – 25 °C, with the inoculum being activ­ated sludge from a muni­cip­al wastewa­ter treat­ment plant. To meet the cri­terion of com­plete bio­de­grad­ab­il­ity, the bio­de­grad­a­tion rate must be at least ≥ 60%. The lub­ric­ants are tested accord­ing to the EN 17181 stand­ard and the thicken­ers accord­ing to the DIN EN ISO 14851 standard.