Valvoline NextGen recycled oil

[infecto]

Originally Posted By: turbochem
Originally Posted By: A_Harman


Extending the thought even further: Since the re-refined oil would be a blend of all kinds of base stocks, they could call it a synthetic blend, and charge more than for traditional dino. That follows the first rule of green-product marketing: Provide an inferior product, but charge more for it.


Inferior in what way?


I would like to know as well. People love to throw out baseless claims.

 

[bustednutz]

For those that don't want to buy a recycled oil, I have to say that you will eventually have no choice. Its only a matter of time till some politicians get greased by some lobbyists for the green movement. A law will be passed and more regulation will ensue on the big "evil" oil giants. It will be mandated that ALL motor oil be of a recycled blend. Its for the greater good of mankind and mother earth.
Remember Hillary Clintons dreams of universal healthcare? It didn't happen right away...........but look at us now.

 

[buster]

I could see The Critic in Cali using this in his Nissan or that Fit he drives around.

 

[oil_spaz]

I could care less about green, but recycled oil is a great concept. Probably get a superior oil since a portion of the basestock is bound to be synthetic.

 

[mechanicx]

Here's a website with more information http://www.nextgencoupon.com/. Looks like it is being rolled out just in Columbus at the Valvoline oil change service centers. But about availability,

"Availability
We're working to make Valvoline NextGen available for everyone. But right now we have limited supplies due to manufacturing capability. View service centers currently offering Valvoline NextGen. In the months and years ahead, Valvoline NextGen will become more widely available."


I found this quote interesting "Valvoline is a different kind of oil company. Many other oil companies make significant money from drilling for new oil. We don't drill for oil. Our motivation is different. We are looking for ways to better utilize existing resources." (bolded part by me)

I knew that Valvoline was refiner and blender of motor oil and gas and not a producer, but I always wondered how that worked with the other oil companies. We say that oil is about $2/gal, but you wonder what oil production cost companies who drill, Mobil, BP, etc. I imagine they produce motor oil and fuel from what they produce. Some of these companies even have their own additive companies and they most really make money. I don't mean to change the subject but someone mentioned the economics of crude oil vs. re-refined.

 

[rshunter]

The industry is basically divided into the drilling and exploration segment, and the refining and marketing segment. A lot of companies choose to concentrate on only one of the two. The guys that do both, well, that's why they refer to them as "integrated". The segments are typically operated as independent entities, even in the integrated companies.

 

[ChuckBerry]

From the flyer the three bottles look like a MaxLife version, a DuraBlend synthetic blend version and a conventional version. I wonder if that's the limit of the Nextgen line for the time being?

 

[unDummy]

Its about time a 'big name' enters the re-refined oil market. I hope that Valvoline backs it up with the weights that we need.

Too bad it looks like its only for the 'instant oil change' crowd. So, I bet its just some more 'safety-clean' oil with a Valvoline twist to it.

From the brochure, it has 3 target markets. The conventional, a synthetic blend, and a high-mileage. Looks like for now that there won't be a full synthetic re-refined product. Basic weights are 5w20, 5w30, 10w30, and 10w40. No exotic 0w20, 0w30, or 5w40!!!

MSDS's are available for these oils at Ashland.

 

[A_Harman]

Originally Posted By: infecto
Originally Posted By: turbochem
Originally Posted By: A_Harman


Extending the thought even further: Since the re-refined oil would be a blend of all kinds of base stocks, they could call it a synthetic blend, and charge more than for traditional dino. That follows the first rule of green-product marketing: Provide an inferior product, but charge more for it.


Inferior in what way?


I would like to know as well. People love to throw out baseless claims.


Baseless, yes, because I haven't seen the specs of the re-refined oil. It's more in the nature of a prediction. If they price it above their synthetic blend oil, we'll know.

 

[mechanicx]

From the Nextgen website I posted, http://www.nextgencoupon.com/TechSpecs.aspx. It's not a PDS but claims the recycled blend oil exceeds API SN.

 

[Mustang2008Z]

My 2 cents worth. I contacted Safety Kleen about their recycled oil and unfortunately, it costs more to recycle the old oil than to use virgin crude oil. Per the Safety Kleen Manager, here in Texas, he stated that when people go into the stores to buy oil, they look for the cheapest motor oil available. Safety Kleens' Recycled Oil costs more than what is on the shelf at your local Walmart. So that is why Safety Kleen markets their recycled oil to the Federal, state, and local governments. So if you are looking for a bargain, which most people are looking for in oil, then recycled oil is NOT for you. By the way, the Recycled Oil is: Americas' Choice. I believe is its' name.

 

[ChuckBerry]

That sort of makes sense, because oil companies have a very efficient network of pipelines to carry crude to refineries to make petroleum products. Recycled oil must be handled much more clumsily, presumably in large barrels trucked to re-refiners, making transportation costs much higher. Then they have to have the cleaning process that virgin crude doesn't have to have, adding more time and cost.

 

[A_Harman]

I looked at Valvoline's NextGen web page, and found it to be short on actual numbers describing the performance of the oil. One number that I did find was that Americans use more than 2 billion quarts of motor oil per year. Scary-sounding number, isn't it? So do some math:

2 billion quarts x 1gal/4qts x 1brl/42gal = 12 million barrels.

The approximate daily usage of oil in the USA is 15 million barrels. So even if all of the motor oil sold in this country were recycled, the net savings would be about 19 hours of oil usage. So where's the big improvement eliminating America's dependency on foreign oil?

 

[ChuckBerry]

It's a small step. It's more about reducing energy use from cracking virgin crude and re-using a still-useful resource. Every little bit helps. No, it's not the silver bullet to slay foreign oil dependence, but it's a start.

 

[77GrandPrix]

Originally Posted By: ChuckBerry
It's a small step. It's more about reducing energy use from cracking virgin crude and re-using a still-useful resource. Every little bit helps. No, it's not the silver bullet to slay foreign oil dependence, but it's a start.



+1

 

[A_Harman]

Originally Posted By: ChuckBerry
It's a small step. It's more about reducing energy use from cracking virgin crude and re-using a still-useful resource. Every little bit helps. No, it's not the silver bullet to slay foreign oil dependence, but it's a start.


It's an even smaller start than you think. Don't forget that Valvoline's NextGen is only using 50% re-refined oil, so they aren't even trying to reach the best-case scenario I described. Below is a description from their website describing the manufacturing process:

How it is Made
Motor oil does not wear out, but it does get dirty, additives are depleted and chemicals are broken down. Therefore, to ensure Valvoline NextGen is every bit as good as our regular oils, it is made through a multistage process. First, large impurities are removed, and then it is distilled to remove any water. Then it is triple filtered to remove microimpurities. Then it is re-refined to restore the right chemical properties. Finally, an advanced additive package is added, and it is blended and packaged.

It doesn't sound to me like they are saving much processing cost, because the oil still needs to go through a refinery. They are saving on the exploration and transport cost of crude oil, but if we were able to pump more crude oil in this country, those costs would be lower already.

 

[Silver_civic]

Pardon me everyone but I have a maybe dumb, simple question. Didnt I see in this post earlier, someone say that they thought it was in fact CHEAPER to re refine old motor into usable/good new motor oil? Maybe I misread this so if I did let me know. I am sorry, but I dont buy the fact that it is MORE EXPENSIVE to recycle and re refine old dirty motor oil into somewhat usable and decent quality new motor oil. Maybe I am wrong, so let me know if I am


adam

 

[ChuckBerry]

Originally Posted By: A_Harman
It doesn't sound to me like they are saving much processing cost, because the oil still needs to go through a refinery. They are saving on the exploration and transport cost of crude oil, but if we were able to pump more crude oil in this country, those costs would be lower already.


...but that still does not address the re-use of a still useful product in a sustainable manner. Effectively motor oil can be re-used indefinitely, so it makes no sense to make brand new motor oil every time. Also, the re-refining process requires significantly less energy input to achieve the same product.

Again, I am not saying that re-refined recycled oil is the silver bullet that will get the world off of Saudi crude and reverse global warming, but it's an easy step and an obvious one. I for one would love to see a federal tax credit on re-refined motor oil to create an interest in it for the consumer market so it could compete with cheap motor oil from virgin crude sold in big box stores.

 

[A_Harman]

Originally Posted By: ChuckBerry


...but that still does not address the re-use of a still useful product in a sustainable manner. Effectively motor oil can be re-used indefinitely, so it makes no sense to make brand new motor oil every time. Also, the re-refining process requires significantly less energy input to achieve the same product.



If it's an uneconomic proposition in the first place, it's unsustainable. Do you have a reference showing the relative costs of re-refining versus refining virgin crude? I'm willing to believe that it could save some costs, but I don't think it would be dramatically different.

Valvoline's experiment in marketing will be interesting to watch. I won't be surprised if they price NextGen above their comparable oils because at the present time "green sells". And they even have it packaged in a green bottle. But once the novelty wears off, and people see that they are paying more for no additional benefit, the price better come down, or it's done for.

 

[ChuckBerry]

Cost as the sole consideration of whether or not to buy a product is what is getting us in to trouble at the moment. Because China can make a product several cents per unit cheaper than the U.S., manufacturing jobs are getting exported. In the same vein, going solely with cost for motor oil is causing us to lose sight of the fact that we can re-use a useful resource.

If there is an epitaph for the United States, it will be: "They lost sight of their dollars to save pennies."