33
FUELS & LUBES INTERNATIONAL
Quarter Four 2014
Historically, bio-based
or biodegradable products either did
not perform as well as traditional
petroleum-based products or were
too costly to produce.
It took a few long years before
those oil company executives
started to appreciate the value of
Brown’s proposition. Today, he has
signed deals to provide base oil to a
number of oil companies and lubri-
cant marketers, and in September,
Novvi opened a plant in Houston,
Texas, to produce base oils that the
company believes will turn the oil
industry upside down.
“Seven years ago nobody wanted
to believe,” Brown said. “Virtually
everybody today believes the green
market exists.”
Novvi will sell out of its base
stock material for the first four
months of production.
“It’s going to change the lubri-
cants industry forever,” Brown said.
“I knew when I saw this technology
it could change the game and make
a big difference in the market.”
NovaSpec
TM
is the first base oil
that is renewable, with the same
chemistry as petroleum-based syn-
thetic base oils (pure hydrocarbon),
providing the level of performance
in a green product that has not been
possible before. This makes No-
vaSpec
TM
the only Group III base oil
that is bio-based. Other bio-based
materials are Group V.
This hydrocarbon chemistry also
allows NovaSpec
TM
to “drop in” to the
entire lubricants supply chain from
how it is handled, mixed in a blending
plant, how it interacts with addi-
tives, used in the field, and end of life
through recycling and re-refining.
Even though NovaSpec
TM
is a
hydrocarbon, it is biodegradable.
This is achieved through the biologi-
cal manufacturing process of the
farnesene feedstock.
It was really only in the last
year that Brown and his colleagues
“started to see how big it can get,” he
said. The turning point was when
the company began development
of fully formulated lubricants that
performed “amazingly well” during
field tests; at the same time, the costs
of the fully formulated products
were competitive with other fully
synthetic products in the market.
“We made hydraulic oil, trans-
former oil, engine oil, marine oil
and more to demonstrate the capa-
bilities of NovaSpec™ base oils, and
they all have top-tier performance
in their respective categories,” he
said.
For instance, NovaSpec
TM
was
used to formulate a top-tier syn-
When Jeff Brown,
president and
chief executive
of Novvi LLC, first
approached oil
companies with his
proposition to con-
vert sugar cane into
high-performance
base oil, the idea
was so novel that
the reactions were
measured and
skeptical.
thetic lubricant as a “drop-in” for
Group III/IV, using Infineum P5711
DI and SV265 VM technology. The
formulation passed all API SN/
ILSAC GF-5 engine tests.
In addition, Novvi has been
running fleet tests in taxicabs in Las
Vegas, in a fleet of 30 hybrid Toyota
cars at Sonoma Raceway and in race
cars at Simraceway Performance
Driving Center, both located in
Sonoma, Calif., USA. In all cases the
results were positive.
“We knew we could actually go
out into the market and the prod-
ucts would do what we said they
would,” he added.
The ability to manufacture these
products in commercial scale was
the key to getting into the game.
The initial plant, which will be
ready to supply the market with
a base stock that is renewable,
non-toxic and biodegradable by
API Group III
F E A T U R E
