It’s time to ACT: Used oil gets a new life
At FUCHS, we strive to reduce our dependence on fossil raw materials, and also to mitigate the climate impact of our lubricant products throughout their life cycle. We are now taking a further step forward and launching ACT. It is a shift in focus from traditional fossil raw materials to recycled, bio-based ones.
ACT, or Advanced Circular Technologies, sums up everything we do to transform our value chain from linear to circular. It’s an initiative to reduce the lubricant sector’s fossil dependency and our products’ climate impact along the entire value chain.
“ACT is also a call to action. This is important, as we all have to pull together if we are to meet the climate targets,” says Helene Odelius, Director Product Management Nordic at FUCHS. “We have a responsibility, and our customers have a responsibility too. With ACT, we can take major steps in the right direction, together.”
New opportunities with circular technology
Used correctly, lubricants serve the environment simply by being lubricants. Well-lubricated machines save energy and ensure reliable operation by reducing friction and protecting against corrosion – thus reducing carbon dioxide emissions as well as costs. We are now taking this evolution further by shifting the focus away from traditional fossil raw materials, to recycled, bio-based raw materials.
With modern circular technology, base oil can be recovered from spent product by reprocessing it and cleaning it of water and contaminants. Since the main carbon dioxide emissions in lubricant production arise in the extraction and refinement of crude oil, the ability to clean spent oil and use it again is a huge benefit for the environment – and it also reduces the need for fossil raw materials. It’s time to start focusing on circularity.
One of the crucial advantages of product recovery is that the molecules do not change chemically. This means that reprocessing does not degrade the material, and this entails huge potential for product reuse. And because the cleaned base oil is of the same high quality as the virgin oil, our customers can achieve their environmental goals without compromising on efficiency.
“This is one of the most important aspects,” says Helene Odelius. “ACT is all about quality, sustainability and performance. Our customers must always be able to rest assured that our circular products provide at least the same lubricating properties as other high-performance products. That’s incredibly important to us. We don’t compromise.”
Potential for everyone with the new raw material
FUCHS is already making a gradual transition from fossil to recycled and bio-based raw materials and already sells a few ACT products. ACT products have to meet special criteria; for instance, they must contain at least 25 percent recycled or bio-based ingredients. With ACT labelling, we want to make it simple for our customers to buy these products based on recycled and bio-based raw materials.
Like FUCHS itself, many of our customers are facing the challenge of reducing their climate impact, and we need to work together if we are to succeed. The idea behind ACT is to provide concrete ways to make it easier for more people to become more circular by using lubricants more efficiently. Everyone needs to understand that what used to be regarded as waste is no longer the end of a product’s life cycle; it’s a potential new raw ingredient. It must be easy to turn spent oil in for recycling.
“As a manufacturer, it’s very important that our customers help us out,” Helene Odelius explains. “We want all lubricant users to understand that they’re sitting on a goldmine when it comes to mitigating climate change. We want them to save their spent oils rather than sending them off for combustion, so that the industry can use them over and over again. Together, we can make a significant difference.”
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Products that are made with or contain Advanced Circular Technologies are labelled with this icon.
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Want to know more?
Helene Odelius
Director Product Management Nordic
helene.odelius@fuchs.com
With ACT, FUCHS wants to:
- reduce dependency on fossil raw materials
- reduce climate impact from our products by increasing the use of recycled, bio-based raw materials
- offer sustainable solutions that do not compromise on quality and performance in the user’s applications