BP’s Castrol and Safety-Kleen have entered a partnership to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by increasing the amount of used Castrol lubricants that are collected and recycled and raising the levels of rerefined base oils used in some Castrol products.
Castrol officials said the program, dubbed MoreCircular, aims to lead the market in a more sustainable direction while at the same time accommodating customers who are increasingly trying to reduce carbon footprints.
“We believe the time is right to lead the market with an integrated more circular – and as a result, lower-carbon-footprint – offer as our business customers are searching for levers to help de-carbonize their operations,” Castrol Americas President Andreas Osbar said in an April 11 news release by the companies.
Castrol’s parent company is based in the United Kingdom, and Castrol is one of the world’s biggest lubricant suppliers, but MoreCircular will be in the United States only. Safety-Kleen is the largest rerefiner in North America, operating six plants with combined capacity to make 10,460 barrels per day of base stocks.
Under the program, used lubricants will be collected from Castrol customers such as fleet maintenance shops and industrial sites, then transported to rerefineries for processing. Base oil yields will be about 70% of the quantity of feedstock entering the plants. Castrol will use the base oils to make a range of lubricants consisting of at least 65% rerefined base stocks by volume.
The companies said Castrol has done significant research and development to integrate rerefined oils into the formulas for those products and conducted field trials with a number of customers to demonstrate the products perform on par with its products made with virgin base oils.
The MoreCircular products will have carbon footprints that are 20%-40% less than those made with virgin base oils, depending on the product.