Countdown to "Green" Motor Oil:
Companies Eager to Offer Environmentally Friendly Products

by Garrett McKinnon
NOLN Staff Writer

The fast lube industry is in a race.

“If you’re not playing in the ‘green’ space, you soon will be — or you’ll be competing against it,” said Curt Knapp, vice president of Oil Sales for Safety-Kleen, a manufacturer of re-refined motor oil.

Speaking at a seminar during the International Fast Lube Expo, Knapp and others said that consumers are increasingly looking for environmentally friendly products and services, and companies that are forward-thinking can set themselves apart from the competition.

A recent study by the Boston Consulting Group found that 73 percent of consumers want companies with which they do business to have good environmental records. Plus, given a choice, 44 percent of consumers will choose a ‘green’ product if one is available — and they’re willing to pay up to 5 percent more for the product.

So who are those 44 percent of consumers, especially as it relates to fast lube customers? By and large they’re women, drivers under 35 years of age, drivers of fuel efficient and/or hybrid vehicles, and people who want to reduce America’s dependence on foreign crude oil — or crude oil period, if public feedback from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill is any indication.

Green Products
For the motor oil market, going “green” generally means one of two things: selling a re-refined motor oil or a biodegradable motor oil. First up, re-refined.

Re-refined motor oil, like its name suggests, is used motor oil that has been collected and put through a “re-refining” process that essentially cleans and purifies the oil, yielding a base oil that is almost chemically identically to base oil refined from petroleum. Once an additives package has been installed — or, as is the case with some blenders, the base oil has been blended with a small percentage of synthetic base oil to generate a very high quality motor oil — the product is ready to be installed in vehicles, where the closed-loop process can continue virtually indefinitely.

“Re-refined motor oil goes through the same tests as motor oil made from crude oil to be licensed,” said Rick Palmore, director of Sales and Marketing with Universal Products. “If the re-refined product meets API standards and OEM specifications, then it can be used in almost any vehicle.”

Palmore said re-refined motor oil has been endorsed by Ford, GM, Chrysler and the Asian automakers that make up the Japanese Auto Manufacturers Association.

“Using 20,000 gallons of re-refined 5W-30 would reduce dependency on foreign crude by about 1.7 million gallons,” Palmore said. “And using one gallon of 5W-30 reduces foreign crude dependence by two barrels.”

Re-refined motor oil has been on the market for decades, but only in the last few years has the public begun to take serious notice, and that could be thanks to the government. President Bill Clinton signed executive order 13149 late in his second term, a directive that requires government fleets to use re-refined motor oil if possible, and thus far many fleets have done just that, including most military vehicles. Today, more and more companies are manufacturing re-refined products, and more and more auto service facilities are offering them.

While re-refined motor oil has a fairly long track record, one new product on the market can claim to be “greener” than just about anything. Green Earth Technologies has developed a patented process for taking saturated animal fats, whose molecular single-bond carbon chains are similar to petroleum oils, and refining them into a base oil that, when mixed with the appropriate additives package, is good enough to be licensed by the American Petroleum Institute, meeting the SM standard for gasoline engines. Unlike petroleum-based motor oils, the product, called G-Oil, is also fully biodegradable, meeting the highest standards of biodegradability as determined by ASTM. That means any G-Oil that found its way into the environment would simply degrade naturally, creating far less environmental impact than petroleum-based oils, a fact that’s sure to prove popular with customers looking for greener options when it comes to automotive service.

The good news about both types of “green” motor oil is that they are price competitive with conventional motor oil, meaning customers won’t have to shell out big bucks to make a green purchasing decision.

Marketing Green
If you’re not offering a “green” oil change service, you’re missing out, according to those who know the industry. Because those businesses that compete with fast lubes have big plans for green products.

“Car dealerships have a keen interest in green products,” Knapp said. “Many are already implementing and promoting green oil changes. They’re not happy with the margins that regular oil changes provide, so they’re using green products as margin builders.” Dealerships aren’t alone.

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