Infineum

Last updated
Infineum International Limited
TypeLimited Liability
IndustryChemicals
Founded1999  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Headquarters
Abingdon
,
United Kingdom
Area served
Worldwide
ProductsLubricant and Fuel Additive lines
OwnerRoyal Dutch shell and Exxonmobil
Number of employees
1800 (2018)
Website https://www.infineum.com/en-gb/

Infineum International Limited is a joint venture between ExxonMobil and Shell plc through each companies' chemical divisions. Its headquarters are located in Abingdon, England and it has operating centers throughout the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, France, Italy, China, Singapore.

Contents

Background

Infineum is a formulator, manufacturer and marketer of petroleum additives for the fuel and lubricant industries. Their products are classified into five distinct groups: driveline additives, engine oil additives, fuel additives, marine additives and industrial products. [1] Their products include small engine, passenger car motor, heavy-duty engine, gas engine, and marine oils along with fuels, transmission fluids, viscosity modifiers, and pour point depressants. [2]

They first created pour point depressants in the 1930s. [3]

In 2001, Texaco purchased Infineum's blending facility in Ghent, Belgium. Under the agreement between Texaco and Infineum, Texaco would continue manufacture of Infineum's Viscosity Modifier products at the plant. [4] In March 2007, Infineum and Chevron Fuel & Marine Marketing entered into an agreement concerning the global supply of fuel additives to the marine industry. [1] In 2011, the company announced that it would be collaborating with Nano Terra, a Boston-based nanotechnology company, to research the development of a "new class of materials". [3]

In 2012, Infineum began construction of a calcium salicylate plant on Jurong Island in Singapore. Calcium salicylate is used as a detergent in Infineum's engine oil formulations. [5]

In February 2017, Infineum announced that Logility Voyager Solutions, a cloud-based business planning platform, had been selected to optimize the company's supply chain with regard to inventory and shipments. [6]

China

In 2001, the company signed a letter of intent to form a joint venture with Sinopec Shanghai Gao Qiao Petrochemical. The joint venture, called Shanghai High-Lube Additives, built a lubricant blending plant in Pudong, Shanghai. [7] In 2013 Infineum opened Infineum (Shanghai) Additives Co, and in 2014 they opened the China Business & Technology Center. In 2016, the company opened an additive blending plant in China's Zhangjiagang, Jiangsu province. The Zhangjiagang plant is Infineum's first wholly owned blending plant in China and it can produce up to 100,000 tonnes of lubricant additive a year. [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

A lubricant is a substance that helps to reduce friction between surfaces in mutual contact, which ultimately reduces the heat generated when the surfaces move. It may also have the function of transmitting forces, transporting foreign particles, or heating or cooling the surfaces. The property of reducing friction is known as lubricity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Motor oil</span> Lubricant used for lubrication of internal combustion engines

Motor oil, engine oil, or engine lubricant is any one of various substances used for the lubrication of internal combustion engines. They typically consist of base oils enhanced with various additives, particularly antiwear additives, detergents, dispersants, and, for multi-grade oils, viscosity index improvers. The main function of motor oil is to reduce friction and wear on moving parts and to clean the engine from sludge and varnish (detergents). It also neutralizes acids that originate from fuel and from oxidation of the lubricant (detergents), improves the sealing of piston rings, and cools the engine by carrying heat away from moving parts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fuel oil</span> Petroleum product burned to generate motive power or heat

Fuel oil is any of various fractions obtained from the distillation of petroleum. Such oils include distillates and residues. Fuel oils include heavy fuel oil, marine fuel oil (MFO), furnace oil (FO), gas oil (gasoil), heating oils, diesel fuel, and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Synthetic oil</span> Lubricant consisting of artificially made chemical compounds

Synthetic oil is a lubricant consisting of chemical compounds that are artificially modified or synthesised. Synthetic lubricants can be manufactured using chemically modified petroleum components rather than whole crude oil, but can also be synthesized from other raw materials. The base material, however, is still overwhelmingly crude oil that is distilled and then modified physically and chemically. The actual synthesis process and composition of additives is generally a commercial trade secret and will vary among producers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gear oil</span> Lubricant used in vehicles and machinery

Gear oil is a lubricant made specifically for transmissions, transfer cases, and differentials in automobiles, trucks, and other machinery. It has high viscosity and usually contains organosulfur compounds. Some modern automatic transaxles do not use a heavy oil at all but lubricate with the lower viscosity hydraulic fluid, which is available at pressure within the automatic transmission. Gear oils account for about 20% of the lubricant market.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sinopec</span> Chinese oil and gas enterprise

China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (中国石油化工股份有限公司), or Sinopec, is a Chinese oil and gas enterprise based in Beijing. It is listed in Hong Kong and also trades in Shanghai.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petroleum product</span> Products ultimately derived from crude oil

Petroleum products are materials derived from crude oil (petroleum) as it is processed in oil refineries. Unlike petrochemicals, which are a collection of well-defined usually pure organic compounds, petroleum products are complex mixtures. Most petroleum is converted into petroleum products, which include several classes of fuels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amsoil</span> American multi-level marketing company

AMSOIL Inc. is an American corporation based in Superior, Wisconsin that primarily formulates and packages synthetic lubricants, fuel additives, and filters. Company founder Albert J. Amatuzio developed several synthetic motor oil formulations throughout the mid-to-late 1960s. He was commercially selling synthetic motor oil by 1968. In 1972, AMSOIL 10W-40 Synthetic Motor Oil became the world's first synthetic motor oil to meet American Petroleum Institute requirements, which prompted the company to adopt "The First in Synthetics®" as its tagline. The company introduced several other synthetic lubricants that represented industry firsts throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. It distributes products in North America via a network of independent dealers paid commissions on sales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">DEXRON</span> Trade name for a group of technical specifications for automatic transmission fluid

Dexron is the trade name for a group of technical specifications for automatic transmission fluid (ATF) created by General Motors (GM). The name was first registered as a trademark and later evolved into a brand of GM. GM licenses the name and specifications to companies that manufacture the fluid and sell it under their own brand names. Not all Dexron fluids are licensed by GM for reselling under another brand name. To be licensed, the product must have a license number that begins with the letters B through J and include a "Dexron Approved" sticker on its container. Like many automobile manufacturers, GM uses transmissions sourced from other suppliers or transmission manufacturers around the world; many of these may use their own unique fluid.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caltex</span> International petroleum brand owned by Chevron Corporation

Caltex is a petroleum brand name of Chevron Corporation used in the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East, and Southern Africa. Headquartered in Singapore, it is also the brand name of non-Chevron petroleum companies in some countries under a trademark licensing agreement with Chevron.

Oil additives are chemical compounds that improve the lubricant performance of base oil. The manufacturer of many different oils can utilize the same base stock for each formulation and can choose different additives for each specific application. Additives comprise up to 5% by weight of some oils.

The Lubrizol Corporation is an American provider of specialty chemicals for the transportation, industrial and consumer markets. These products include additives for engine oils and other transportation-related fluids, additives for industrial lubricants, and additives for gasoline and diesel fuel. In addition, Lubrizol makes ingredients and additives for personal care products, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, specialty materials, including plastics technology, and coatings in the form of specialty resins and additives.

Gushan Environmental Energy Limited, is a biodiesel producer in China that was incorporated on May 16, 2006. The Company produces biodiesel and by-products of biodiesel production, including glycerol, plant asphalt, erucic acid and erucic amide. Biodiesel is a renewable, clean-burning and biodegradable fuel produced from a variety of feedstocks, such as vegetable oil, animal fat and recycled cooking oil. Currently there are 5 production facilities located in Beijing, Shanghai, Mianyang in Sichuan province, Handan in Hebei province and Fuzhou in Fujian province, serving the northern, interior and southeastern regions of China respectively. Biodiesel is used to fuel a range of diesel engines, typically after blending with diesel, including diesel engines found in trucks, mass transit vehicles, marine vessels and generators. The by-products of its biodiesel production have commercial applications in the food, pharmaceutical and manufacturing industries. The Company sells its products in China to direct users, including marine vessel operators, petroleum wholesalers and individual retail gas stations. The Company primarily uses vegetable oil offal and used cooking oil to produce biodiesel. It acquires the raw materials supply for each of its production facilities primarily from local suppliers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">China Petrochemical Corporation</span> World largest oil refining & petrochemical company

China Petrochemical Corporation or Sinopec Group is the world's largest oil refining, gas and petrochemical conglomerate, administered by SASAC for the State Council of the People's Republic of China. It is headquartered at Chaoyangmenwai in Beijing, across the road from the headquarters of fellow state-owned oil company and competitor CNOOC Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chevron Richmond Refinery</span>

The Chevron Richmond Refinery is a 2,900-acre (1,200 ha) petroleum refinery in Richmond, California, on San Francisco Bay. It is owned and operated by Chevron Corporation and employs more than 1,200 workers, making it the city's largest employer. The refinery processes approximately 240,000 barrels (38,000 m3) of crude oil a day in the manufacture of petroleum products and other chemicals. The refinery's primary products are motor gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel and lubricants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Automotive oil recycling</span> The process of recycling used engine and motor oils

Automotive oil recycling involves the recycling of used oils and the creation of new products from the recycled oils, and includes the recycling of motor oil and hydraulic oil. Oil recycling also benefits the environment: increased opportunities for consumers to recycle oil lessens the likelihood of used oil being dumped on lands and in waterways. For example, one gallon of motor oil dumped into waterways has the potential to pollute one million gallons of water.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NewMarket Corporation</span> American chemical company

NewMarket Corporation is a publicly traded, company that primarily serves the petroleum additives industry. The company is based in Richmond, Virginia, and has operations in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. The company's predecessor, the Albemarle Paper Manufacturing Company, was founded in 1887.

Afton Chemical Corporation develops and manufactures petroleum additives, including driveline, engine oil, fuel and industrial additives. Afton Chemical Corporation is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, and has operations around the world. The company is a subsidiary of NewMarket Corporation, a corporation specializing in performance specialty chemicals.

Pour point depressants are used to allow the use of petroleum based mineral oils at lower temperatures. The lowest temperature at which a fuel or oil will pour is called a pour point. Wax crystals, which form at lower temperatures, may interfere with lubrication of mechanical equipment. High-quality pour point depressants can lower a pour point of an oil additive by as much as 40°C.

Selda Gunsel is a Turkish-American chemical engineer. She is currently President of Shell Global Solutions and Vice President (VP) for Global Commercial Technology at Royal Dutch Shell.

References

  1. 1 2 Plunkett, Jack W. (2008). Plunkett's Chemicals, Coatings & Plastics Industry Almanac 2009. Plunkett Research, Ltd. ISBN   978-1-59392-125-5.
  2. "Infineum International Limited: Private Company Information - Bloomberg". Bloomberg News . Retrieved 2017-12-10.
  3. 1 2 "Infineum and Nano Terra Expand Technology and Product Development Program". Entertainment Close-up. 2012-07-23. Archived from the original on 2017-12-10. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
  4. Anonymous (2001-10-01). "Texaco buys Infineum's Belgium blending facility". Tribology & Lubrication Technology. Archived from the original on 2017-12-10. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
  5. "UK's Infineum starts building salicylate project in Singapore" . Retrieved 2017-12-10.
  6. "United States : Infineum Selects Logility to Optimise Supply Chain Performance". Mena Report. 2017-02-22. Archived from the original on 2017-12-10. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
  7. Wood, Andrew (2001-01-17). "Infineum Plans China Blending JV.(Sinopec Shanghai Gao Qiao Petrochemical)(Brief Article)". Chemical Week. Archived from the original on 2017-12-10. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
  8. "The Motorship Infineum opens China blending plant" . Retrieved 2017-12-10.