Maritime

About - What-Why-How: The Concept

What is L-44®?

L-44 is the U.S. Patent Office Registered mark for a family of human and environmentally-friendly chemical products created by Custom Compounders specifically designed for use on transportation vessels operating in our nation’s waterways.

This registered mark is restricted for use only on formulations by Custom Compounders which have been certified and approved by the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Safer Choice program as safer chemistry. This means they are proven and certified safer for environmental and human health concerns. Our L-44® ECD Degreaser is the cornerstone product of this Safer Choice approved family.

Why We Chose to Go “Green”

Historically, chemical manufacturers and formulators have focused on the competitive pressures of cost and performance. While successful, it frequently bypasses important consequences of use – our health and environment!

Marketing tactics for many common commercial products promote environmental friendliness and other positive images, but none of these ambiguous claims are or can be, substantiated! In fact, if completed accurately, many of the MSDSand SDS sheets for these “friendly/biodegradable” products blatantly contradict their promotional claims.

Change for people and manufacturers is often met with resistance. When all seems fine – why change? Custom Compounders is motivated by different understandings for the words “why” and “change.”

L-44’s purpose is to avoid the questions of why by offering safe products certified to support our environmental and human health concerns. It is our responsibility.

How? Substantiate!

To promote is easy – to substantiate is a considerable challenge. Our L-44 goal was to verify all product claims with documentation in compliance with the Federal Trade Commission. We chose the U.S. EPA’s Safer Choice program as our standard for chemical assessment.

Each L-44 formulation was submitted for complete toxicology studies as required for recognition under the EPA Safer Choice program. This program is known to be the most critical and rigorous qualification process for assessing environmental and worker safety concerns.

We are proud that our L-44 products have been certified and substantiated by our Recognized Partnership Agreement with the EPA. We have been awarded the honor and right to use the Safer Choice Logo on our products and literature. This prestigious logo speaks much more effectively for our product value than we ever could.

The Concept – Stewardship

It began with a question from an owner of a river operations company. Our model is a reflection of support for the river transportation and marine industry’s corporate mission for Best Environmental and Workplace Practices.

Our respect for this dedicated industry leadership for all concerns of safety is the primary influence in our product design.  No other industry has accomplished more! We are honored by our association.

“We are determined to give back to the industry what it continues to give us all.”

Contact Us Today

Our team is here to help and looks forward to sharing our safe products with you and your business. If you have questions or you’d like to order any of our L-44 products, contact us today855-638-8661.

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What People Say

  • “Our company enjoys a very special supplier relationship with the Henry A. Petter Supply Company of Paducah Ky. To have our L-44® products associated with this historic and respected 105 year service provider to the river and marine industry is a an enormous privilege and advantage for our company. We are humbled for our association with Petter’s known reputation in the industry”

    Henry A. Petter Supply

  • “Thanks again for the opportunity to test your L-44® degreaser in our harbor fleeting operations. I now see why you had enough confidence in your product to offer a free sample for testing. Boy, were we pleased with the results! It’s nice to see a degreaser that not only cleans well, but also one that is safe for our employees and our equipment. Thanks again for opportunity to test your degreaser.” You now have a new happy customer!

    Terry F. Ferebee
    VP Vessel Operations, Helena Marine Service, Inc.

  • “I wanted to take a minute to thank you and Custom Compounders for putting out the L44ECD degreaser. Our crews use your degreaser on a daily basis and feel that it preforms very well. As the manager of our facility I appreciate the fact that your degreaser is user friendly, environmentally friendly, and meets or exceeds our government standards. I regularly pass the information on L44 along to others that we work with in the industry including fuel and oil suppliers.”

    Karl Berthelot
    Manager BMI Ste. Gen.

  • “I have worked for Luhr Bros. Inc. for 26 yrs on the boats and in their office. I came in the office in 1996 as a Safety Manager. We have been using the “L-44 ECD” Degreaser for about 4 yrs. From my perspective as a Safety Professional, the L-44 “ECD” Degreaser we are using is better than any other degreasers we have used by far. With “L-44 ECD” Degreaser we have an environmentally safe product, and no crew members having to attend medical facilities due to being burned by direct skin contact. Also it does a great job cleaning our engines and not fading the paint job. I encourage all the river companies to give it a try.”

    Bill Klingel
    Luhr Bros Inc. Marine Division

  • “We enjoy an honored privilege for the opportunity extended our company by Joe Brantley of AEP River Operations to have L-44® ECD Degreaser evaluated as part of their corporate “Go Green” mission aboard the mv. Donna Rushing. We are uniquely indebted to AEP, and for the detailed efforts of Rob Korte and Jim Wilson for their testing reviews of L-44® ECD on multiple tugboats of the AEP fleet."

    Project Go Green

  • “I have been using degreasers for many years and have never had the quality of degreaser that I am now using with the L-44 ECD. It reduces the amount of time I have to spend in the engine room cleaning which allows me more time to concentrate on my other duties. The younger generation of engineers are going to be spoiled by using a higher quality of degreaser than we had to use in the past. They will spend less time cleaning and no burning or skin irritation when it comes in contact with your skin.”

    Rick Myers, Chief Engineer, M/V Twyla Luhr