Page 34 - Fuels & Lubes International 2014 - Q2

FUELS & LUBES INTERNATIONAL Volume 20 Issue 2 34
For Taylor and his
colleagues—chemists, mechanical
engineers and physicists who, day
after day, formulate and test and
reformulate and re-test in labs
around the world looking for the
Holy Grail of engine oils—these are
trying times.
There are so many lubricants and
additives and ways to combine them
and test them. The competition to of-
fer something to consumers that no-
body else does is fierce. It is difficult
enough to just keep pace with all the
standards and specifications, particu-
larly in regards to fuel economy and
reducing their environmental impact
along with balancing viscosity levels
to reduce fuel consumption while
still protecting the engine fromwear.
Standing out from all the rest
is a significant challenge.
Yet that is what Shell is focused
on. One of the key ways product
developers are going about it is
by working to produce oils that
maximize engine performance and
clean and protect engines better
than some leading competitors’ oils,
above and beyond any specifications
like those of ILSAC.
“We’re still looking for a reason
why people should buy our product
rather than someone else’s, and cer-
tainly…we’ve concentrated a lot on
looking at how our oils manage to
keep engines clean, or, if you’ve got a
dirty engine, how to clean them up,”
Taylor said. “We’re constantly on the
lookout for putting additional ben-
efits in our products over and above
what’s in the ILSAC specs,” he said.
Shell has built a large research
team in Houston, Texas, the location
for the main lab for Shell lubricants.
Shell also has a lab in Germany, and
the company recently opened a new
laboratory in Shanghai, China. This
lab is an expansion and relocation
of an existing technical laboratory
that was located on Shell’s lube oil
plant in Zhuhai in southern China.
“The Shanghai lab will be focused
initially on local technical service
and local product development, but
as researchers gain more experience,
the lab will be more integrated into
global research and development,”
Taylor said.
Taylor joined Shell in 1991.
He previously worked with an elec-
tronics company and has a doctor-
ate in applied physics from Durham
University in the UK. He earned an
Ian Taylor
Technology Scout
Robert Ian Taylor, technology manager of lubrication science at Shell
Global Solutions (UK), sees himself as a technology scout looking for new
themes, new ideas and new areas on which nobody else is focused.
By Kelly Thornton
F E A T U R E