Hydraulic oil

I sail a 20 year old boat with a complex PTO driven Hydraulic system. Last month I tangled with a ghost gill net and destroyed the underwater shaft seals. The end result was the loss of 400 litres of shell Tellus 32 hydraulic oil into the sea.

Embarassing. Irresponsible.

Modern underwater systems use environmentally friendly, biodegradable oils. I would like to purge my old system of Tellus 32 and replace with Shell Narurelle 32.
Is this oil compatible with my 20 year old Rexroth PTO and Vickers valve block seal system ?

With Local inquires the reply is ...pay your money, take your chances.

Any thoughts
http://www.epc.shell.com/docs/GPCDO...ngdom_Shell_Naturelle_HF-E_32_(en-GB)_TDS.pdf

 

What an environmental disaster. How much did you get cleaned up?

 

As to using your current PTO, your locals are correct.

If you want to lower risk, replace the PTO.

All of your remaining seals are 20 years old. Changing 'cherry juice' to a different juice means you risk the seals changing because of the 'new' juice environment.

That is true with any hydraulic fluid, that I know of.

As for 'risk.' There is not as much risk as usually implied. But, there is risk.

And losing 106 gallons of synthetic oil a second time is messy, even if the half life is much shorter than the non-synthetic.

Just look at what spilling molasses did, and that is more biodegradable than 'cherry juice.'