business EUROPEAN Interview with Andreas Schüppel, CEO of PURAGLOBE Holding GmbH Sustainable base oil products There may be disagreement amongst experts about when exactly peak oil will be reached but one thing is certain – the end is in sight for the cheap oil era. After a decade in which oil prices have fluctuated wildly and are now on the rise again, many sectors are looking at more sustainable alternatives. PURAGLOBE Inc. is the exclusive provider of UOP HyLube™ and HyLubeSAT™ process technology, which it uses to develop innovative, sustainable base oil products from used oil. Thanks to this technology, it is the only provider worldwide of sus- tainable Group III base oils made from used oil. In Germany it is represented by its subsidi- ary, PURAGLOBE Holding GmbH. Faced with the end of the oil era as we know it, industry is looking for alternatives. One axis of invest- ment for the automotive industry is in electric vehicles, but the day when electric cars outnumber diesel or petrol cars on the roads is still a long way off and they will still need petroleum-based lubricants. PURAGLOBE prides itself on oper- ating the most advanced, sustain- able base oil facilities in the world. Two of these are based in Zeitz, Germany while a further facility is currently being developed with the same capabilities as its European facilities in Tampa, Florida. “We combine American ingenuity with German engineering,” says CEO Andreas Schüppel. “Oil can be endlessly recycled and is graded accord- ing to quality. Group III is the highest qual- ity available, used for high performance car engines. With our oils, motorists can drive for 30,000 km before the next oil change.” This is made possible by UOP’s unique re-refining technol- ogy HyLube™ and HyLubeSAT™. “UOP holds the patents and we provide the tech- nology,” explains Mr. Schüppel. “We brought our first facility for HyLube™ technology on line in 2004. It is capable of pro- cessing 75,000 t of used oil to pro- duce 50,000 t of base oil a year. After an investment of almost 40 million EUR, we brought a second, larger facility on line in 2009. It has a capacity to produce 100,000 t of base oil from 150,000 t of used oil in total.” Since then, the company has been piloting its follow-on technology HyLubeSAT™. This will be the basis for its new plant in Zeitz, Germany, which will be commissioned in May 2017 and in Tampa, Florida, as well which is due to go into production in 2018. “We are the only company in the world with this technology,” says Mr. Schüppel. “As well as produc- ing sustainable, high grade motor oil, it also leads to significant re- ductions in carbon emissions. We estimate that the carbon footprint of our process will save 150,000 t of carbon compared to the production of crude oil on an annual basis.” The price of the lower grades of base oil is linked to the barrel price Recycling motor oil using UOP’s HyLubeSAT™ technol- ogy can reduce carbon emissions by 150,000 t per year PURAGLOBE’s used oil recycling activities extend the lifespan of the earth’s oil resources www.european-business.com