Low-toxicity process oil coming to forefront in North America

UNIONTOWN, Ohio—Repsol S.A.'s Extensoil line of rubber process oils isn't new, but it's recently come to the forefront of the North American market due to some favorable properties and increasing demand.

The international petroleum manufacturing company, based in Madrid, Spain, says demand is increasing for its more "environmentally friendly" aromatic extender oils—used particularly in the tire industry—due to the global push for sustainability, as well as the continuing logistical chokehold on the supply chain.

European legislation forbids the use of carcinogenic oils—or high-polyaromatic process oils, said Gloria Montealegre Garcia, technical assistance manager for development of specialty products at Repsol, and other countries and individual businesses and manufacturers are doing the same.

If a process oil contains more than 3 percent of polycyclic aromatic content, it is considered carcinogenic according to European standards, she said, adding that a process oil must contain less than 10 ppm with benzo[a]pyrene content at less than 1 ppm.

Repsol produces several different low-toxicity aromatic process oils, otherwise referred to as unlabeled aromatic extender oils, including treated distillate aromatic extract (TDA), residual automatic extract (RAE) and mild extracted solvate (MES), Garcia said.

ChemSpec Ltd. Marketing Director John Stephenson said the availability of Repsol's Extensoil also is a big driver for the increase in its demand in the North American market, especially due to the current increased lead times within the supply chain.

"I think the newer interest that we have (for Extensoil) is just people looking for availability, and that's a big component," he said.

For years Repsol has partnered with Uniontown, Ohio-based ChemSpec—a member of Safic-Alcan Group—for the distribution of its products, including its Redezon-branded microcrystalline waxes. Stephenson said the companies' relationship goes back 25-30 years and that the supplier exhibited alongside ChemSpec at the 2021 International Elastomer Conference in Pittsburgh.

Dave Moreland, ChemSpec president and CEO, said that the increase in demand in the U.S. has been more recent because the U.S. market has been a naphthenic oil market due to its lower cost point in the country for the tire industry in North America "since the beginning."

Now, he said, the low-toxicity aromatic oils are being driven over, from a globalization point of view, because of their sustainability properties and because they are becoming more price competitive.

ChemSpec is "in the midst of securing" a facility to facilitate the cost of oils, Stephenson added, noting the company is seeking ways to reduce these "tremendous lead times" and "provide security, provide availability and, ultimately, continue finding marketplace value."

Part of what separates the Extensoil line is its compatibility, Moreland and Garcia both noted, particularly its solubility properties with styrene-butadiene rubber.

The Extensoil line is especially suitable for the tire and belting industry, according to Repsol, because of its aromaticity, which makes for better performance in products by decreasing stiffness, increasing strength and improving low temperature properties, among others.

"These particular oils from Repsol are more competitive now because of the supply and demand here in North America," Moreland said, adding that because Extensoil products are "high-quality material" with "good quality characteristics" for SBR, "it really puts us in a better position to supply product here in North America."