Originally Posted By: Solarent
Link from Lube Report
Quote:
The product is 25 percent sugar cane oil and offers the same level of performance as other Castrol Edge products, Ame Cameron, head of U.S. brands and communications for Castrol, told a reporter. She did not mention what other types of conventional base stocks are formulated into the product...
The new biobased oils meet the API SN and ILSAC GF-5 specifications, Cameron confirmed, and will be offered in 5W-30, 0W-20 and 5W-20 viscosity grades. “5W-30 is the largest OEM spec on the market, so it makes the most sense to appeal to the people with that viscosity grade.”
In addition to having a Certified Biobased label from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Castrol aims to have the engine oil qualified as carbon neutral, offsetting the carbon dioxide footprint from the production, packaging, distribution and storage process through parent company BP’s Target Neutral program.
It looks like Castrol is the first to step into the Bio-Synthetic world with a market general product. I've been expecting this for about 2 years, as there are a couple of base oil providers that are creating new bio-based products that have achieved success by proving they can be used as blend stocks.
Based on the Sugar Cane comment, I would bet that they are using NovaSpec base oils:
Novvi Base Oils
There is also a company that makes a new base oil called estolides:
Biosynthetic Base Oil
If this gains traction in the marketplace, I believe that biosynthetics will be the next wave in engine oil development - there are performance benefits to using 25% bio-content in your engine oils and it also shows a commitment sustainability in lubricants. Just imagine Conventional/High Mileage/Synthetic/Biosynthetic as the 4 tiers of engine oil.
The future is now.
Let's not forget Renewable Lubricants Incorporated or RLI which has produced bio-synthetic oils from mixes of vegetable oils, vegetable oil-derived esters, and real synthetic oils for some time now.
