Waste oil rerefiner ReGen III aims to be the world’s largest producer of regenerated API Group III base oil when the company commissions its plant in Texas. In the meantime, it recently closed a second and final tranche of a private placement share offering to raise working capital.
Data gathered by the United States Department of Energy, to which ReGen III has applied for financing, suggest more than 1 billion gallons (3.78 billion liters) of waste lubricants in North America is collected annually out of 1.6 billion generated. Of that, up to 30% is incinerated. This leaves ample feedstock for new rerefineries such as ReGen III.
Some of the capital raised from the share offering paid for testing at Koch Modular to generate samples of Group III and intermediary products.
“Creating additional physical samples was very important to our offtake discussions,” ReGenIII’s President and CEO Mark Redcliffe told Lube Report. “Our primary focus today is on securing a bankable offtaker.”
Anticipated input capacity for ReGen III’s plant is 5,600 barrels per day. This exceeds Avista’s 400 bbl/d in Peachtree City, Georgia and Puraglobe’s 1,000 bbl/day plant in Germany, according to Lubes’n’Greases’ Base Stock Capacity Data.
Redcliffe says this high yield will be achievable using a patented process also called ReGen. The innovation is the insertion of a molecular separation unit for solvent extraction between the contamination separation unit and hydro-treater.
In 2022, ReGen III completed feasibility studies and the preliminary design modifications for the facility located at a former Dow Chemical site. Infrastructure already in place includes as a deepwater port, supply lines, storage tanks, rail lines, hydrogen supply and wastewater processing, Redcliffe explained. This is followed by the basic design stage, which will be instrumental in securing funding from the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office.