The Aston Martin Vulcan racing supercar will be the first vehicle equipped with Nexcel technology. Road cars fitted with it are expected to go into production within five years.

Castrol said it has tested the system on a range of engines, from very small city cars to high-powered racing vehicles in the most extreme of conditions. The system oil flow has been tested at up to 600 liters per minute, 10-20 times greater than in a conventional passenger car engine.

The chief engineer for Nexcel, Oliver Taylor, told Lube Report that Castrol developed the concept after setting out to invent a faster, easier-to-install and cleaner system for oil changes. Its often quite hot, and things can often go wrong, he said. We thought, Whats a better way to do that?

Taylor noted that Castrol hopes the technology will be picked up by the entire automotive lubricants industry and used with engine oils other than Castrol as well. Thats really important to us, Taylor said. Thats the reason its marketed as Nexcel – its something we see as a solution for the industry. Absolutely Castrol will play a part in that, and we will be filling Nexcel oil cells, as will other lubricant manufacturers as well.

The oil cell is similar in size and shape to the typical car engine battery. The unit – including its integrated oil filter and when filled with five liters of oil – weighs approximately five kilograms (about 11 pounds), according to Taylor. It is made of an engineering polymer called glass-filled nylon, a durable material typically used in under-the-hood applications such as engine covers. That material is capable of resisting the high temperatures and pressures required, and it is also able to be recycled once in contact with oil, Taylor said. It is also a material that allows us to reuse it a number of times.

How it Works

The installation process begins with putting the vehicle into a service mode to activate a small electric pump. That electric pump picks up oil right from the bottom of the sump and pumps all of the oil back into the oil cell, he explained. That process takes about 30 seconds. The used oil cell – containing all the used oil and an integrated oil filter – is removed. The procedure ends with dropping in a new oil cell with fresh lubricant and a fresh filter.

That same [electric] pump then operates in reverse, and it moves some of the oil from the oil cell back into the engine, Taylor noted. And thats when the service is complete – that whole process takes about 90 seconds. A lot of that is actually waiting for the oil pump to operate. Removing the old cell and installing a new cell is a tool-less procedure that takes only a few seconds, he said. Not only can you install it without hand tools, but without any requirement of the vehicle be on ramps or jacks.

The oil pump is programmed to move only some of oil into the engine immediately after cell installation; this helps minimize carbon dioxide emissions. One of the way it provides a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from the vehicle is by improving the rate of warm-up of the engine, which optimizes the engines efficiency, Taylor said. With the Nexcel system, we only provide the engine with a precise amount of oil flow to allow the engine to operate safely during that warm-up period. So some of the oil remains in the oil cell. Once the engine is at operating temperature, the rest of the oil is introduced to the engine.

The oil cell is completely sealed, and has electronics on it that measure the oil level, and the oil quality. Meanwhile, an electronic chip enables the engine to communicate with the oil – completing a digital handshake – so that the vehicle can ensure the correct grade oil is used every time the vehicle is serviced.

Implementation

Castrol said testing and installing the system on a low-volume car like the Aston Martin Vulcan allowed the company to accelerate development of the technology, meaning it could be ready for mass market production much sooner. Taylor said using the oil cell on the Aston Martin Vulcan also allows researchers to test the cell under the extremely high g-forces the car reaches on the track.

The lubricant company is working with a number of other vehicle manufacturers to equip road cars with the system, he said. Officials expects to see the first road cars with Nexcel in five years. Castrol is working with many different partners to develop a generic oil cell design that would be suitable for a number of different vehicles, he added.

Were working with vehicle manufacturers to install the system in a safe location, and complete, for example, crash tests with systems to make sure it operates as expected and in a safe manner for all operating conditions, Taylor said. Were getting a lot of insights on how to get a system installed.

Sustainability

The Nexcel was also designed to reduce waste of used oil. It has always been designed to be reused a number of times, he said. So at Nexcel, we are developing a logistics system which will deliver the oil cells to where they need to be. This would include a variety of service locations such as franchised or independent automotive service workshops. The logistics system will also pick up the used oil cells, and theyll come back to Nexcel for processing.

Theyre designed to be taken apart and reused a number of times, Taylor said of the cells. Theyre cleaned, and a new oil filter is put inside the oil cell, and then refilled with fresh lubricant.

Marketing

If other lubricant marketers use the Nexcel cell as Castrol hopes, consumers should retain the choice they have today to shop for the optimum oil for their vehicle.

During the products development, Castrol spoke to a number of oil installers, from franchise workshops and large dealerships down to smaller workshops and even consumers, to understand their responses to the technology.

The oil cell is designed to ensure the oil service costs no more than it does today, Taylor said. Thats really been the design target from Day One.

He noted workshops are capacity-constrained when it comes to changing oil. They want to be able to service more vehicles – the problem is they cant get the vehicles through quickly enough, Taylor said. Constraints often include a limited number of ramps or pits to get vehicles up on for servicing, and the 10- to 20-minute drain time typically required for oil changes. Nexcel could eliminate both of those constraints, he said.