India-based Century Refineries broke ground last month on a $1.7 million rerefinery outside Bay City, Texas, with vacuum gas oil production slated to begin by April 2014.
The plant will initially produce VGO, light fuel and asphalt flux, along with base oils in the future, Century Refineries co-owner K.S. Bharadwaj told Lube Report. The company expects that during its first phase, the plant will rerefine around 8 million gallons of used motor oil per year. The company plans to release additional details about the plant later this week, Bharadwaj said.
The plants components are being built in India, according to a Matagorda County Economic Development Corp. press release, and scheduled to arrive in the first week of February 2014. The company launched a rerefinery in Bengaluru, India, that began recycling and rerefining used hydraulic oils using vacuum distillation in 1997. The Bengaluru plant uses a high vacuum thin film technology and a wiped film evaporator process in its production of rerefined API Group I base oils.
According to the economic development agency, the new Century Refinery facility will be the first rerefinery in Texas.
This company is a good example of efforts to help create a sustainable environment, agency executive director Michael Strotheide told Lube Report. The agency pointed out that Century Refinerys owners plan to create programs that will help educate local high school students on the benefits of recycling used petroleum products.
Apart from temporary construction jobs, the plant will create 15 full-time positions, and the company will begin hiring in January 2014.