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Marine lubricants supplier Total Lubmarine has today launched Talusia Optima, a new cylinder lube oil compatible with both high-sulphur heavy fuel oils and ultra-low-sulphur distillate fuels.

The new lube is described by Total as being "a breakthrough development that will simplify the management of vessels trading globally in and out of Emission Control Areas". The product has been produced for use with fuels ranging in sulphur content of between 0 and 3.5%, and is said to offer the potential to significantly reduce lube consumption and help extend engine life.

Launching the product at SMM in Hamburg, Total Lubmarine's Technical Director Jean-Philippe Roman, remarked: "Today is the culmination of years of work in the lab and tests at sea and I am delighted that Talusia Optima is now on the market and available to our customers. It will make life on-board easier for ships' crews and greatly minimise the risks encountered during fuel changeovers.

"Tests conducted during sea trials have all shown that Talusia Optima's resistance to adhesive wear is better than that of conventional BN 100 cylinder lube oils, and piston coating wear rate is improved by 30%. Indeed, the final inspection on-board one mega boxship that had used Talusia Optima for 4300 hours whilst deployed on Asia-Europe liner routes, found that its engine had perfect piston and liner cleanliness."

Roman added: "We are confident that Talusia Optima will extend the life of engines it is used in and with well monitored feed rate reduction programmes in place, offer potential savings on lube spend."

Serge Dal Farra, Total Lubmarine's Global Marketing Manager said: "As the developers of the industry's first single oil solution, Talusia Universal, we knew that demand for a single oil solution was strong. No ship operator or engineer wants added complexity and we have brought a lube that is compatible with all fuel types to market to meet our customers' pressing need for a simple solution.

"I am delighted that as of today we can supply Talusia Optima to our customers in major ports and offer it to the wider market. Our research and technical teams have created a truly excellent product that counters and actively anticipates the current and future complexity of shipping operations."

Talusia Optima is said to have completed thousands of hours of sea trials on a variety of two-stroke engine powered vessels, with regular drain oil analysis during the trials showing that Talusia Optima's residual Base Number (BN) was always higher than that of other lubricants and total iron content always lower without any hard ash deposit formation.

Talusia Optima is based on a new type of chemistry known as Ashfree Neutralizing Molecules (ANM). Total explains that "the patented technology provides fast and effective acid neutralization without any undesired mineral deposit build up. High quality mineral components are used in combination with ANM to provide detergency and cleanliness".

WinGD has given approval for the use of Talusia Optima with its Wartsila RTA, RT-flex and X engines as well as in Sulzer two-stroke engines.