Manufacturers across the lubricating grease industry are under growing pressure to reduce environmental impact without compromising performance, reliability or product consistency. For Axel Christiernsson, this transition is already well underway.
Case story
Peter Lagerlöf, CEO of the AXEL Group, and Eric Gosse, President and CEO of Nynas, during a meeting at Nynas' headquarters in Stockholm.
Headquartered in Sweden and operating six production plants across Europe and the United States, AXEL is an independent and market-leading operator in the lubricants industry. The company focuses exclusively on defining, developing and manufacturing high-quality lubricating greases, while supporting customers with technical expertise and tailored services to help grow their grease businesses.
Nynas and Axel Christiernsson (AXEL) both have their roots on the east coast of Sweden, dating back a century and more. Today, that long-standing connection continues through a shared ambition to combine high performance lubricating greases with a lower environmental footprint.
“The collaboration between our two companies has a long history, and our products and ambitions complement each other well,” says Fred Kooijmans, Strategic Purchase Manager at AXEL.
“The synergies continue to evolve as naphthenic base oils are a fundamental feedstock for many current grease formulations, affording positive benefits in terms of both physical properties and finished grease performance.”
The fundamental purposes of lubricating oil or grease remain unchanged: component protection and friction reduction. This enables operational efficiency benefits ranging from enhanced equipment performance and prolonged service life to improved reliability and reduced maintenance costs.
“Today, the same fundamental lubrication principles apply whilst we simultaneously bring increasing focus to sustainability through the adoption of technologies and processes that support our ability to progressively reduce our impact on the environment,” explains Fred Kooijmans.
AXEL is working to reduce emissions from its own operations while increasing the use of renewable raw materials. Their ambition is to become a frontrunner in developing greases that are biodegradable and have low toxicity.
“That said, this does not distract our attention from conventional mineral and synthetic oil-based lubricating greases, where we believe that high performance products and sustainability can go hand-in-hand.”
 Meeting at Nynas' headquarters in Stockholm. From left to right: Luis Bastardo-Zambrano, Technical Director at Nynas; Fredrik Ahlström, Group Purchasing Manager at AXEL; Peter Lagerlöf, CEO of AXEL; and Fred Kooijmans, Strategic Purchasing Manager at AXEL. |
This is where the collaboration between AXEL and Nynas comes together: finding solutions that meet stringent technical requirements while helping reduce environmental impact.
“Nynas EVO naphthenic base oils are an excellent step in that direction, thanks to them being plug-and-play solutions that are technically equivalent to the standard grades but with a lower carbon emission footprint,” notes Fred Kooijmans.
One important advantage is that the EVO portfolio can be introduced without the complexity often associated with reformulation work.
“The mass-balance nature of the EVO products avoids the technical and regulatory challenges of reformulation while offering carbon footprint reduction benefits.”
Partly based on renewable raw materials using a certified mass balance approach, Nynas EVO grade help customers reduce their product carbon footprint without changing formulations or performance. Compared with conventional fossil-based alternatives, EVO grades can reduce cradle-to-gate CO₂ emissions by around 25%, while maintaining the same technical properties, approvals and supply reliability. The range is designed as a drop-in solution for applications such as lubricants, greases and tyre oils, supporting a smoother transition towards more sustainable formulations.
According to Fred Kooijmans, this makes the EVO portfolio a practical first step towards more sustainable grease products.
“Nynas has created a product portfolio that enables the first rung on the sustainability ladder for conventional lubricating greases. We believe in taking this initial step and are actively developing low carbon footprint products that compete with conventional lubricating greases.”
“To this end, we see the tangible benefits of good collaborations with strategic supply partners like Nynas to find solutions to make our industry futureproof.”
Looking ahead, AXEL sees increased circularity as the next major step for the lubricants industry. Lubricating grease is often a total loss product, meaning further development is needed to help close the loop across the value chain.
“Eventually, we hope sustainable base oils will become the standard rather than the option, and that the next step from mass-balance solutions is products that offer greater circularity, for example by collecting and rerefining base oils to avoid the impact of the initial oil extraction,” says Fred Kooijmans.
“But Nynas EVO is an important first step on that journey.”
Thanks to their superb characteristics, our naphthenic grades or Group II / Naphthenic blends provide a more sustainable, high-performance alternative. Think of it as an opportunity to upgrade.
Here you will find a selection of our base oils based on their key characteristics, including viscosity. For more information on each product, simply download the relevant Product and Safety Data Sheets.