lower carbon intensity focus areas
A lifecycle approach to carbon accounting facilitates informed decision making throughout the value chain. This accounting approach can be used to quantify the carbon intensity associated with a good or service, inclusive of some direct and indirect emissions. Such an approach could enable policymakers to drive the most pragmatic policy, incentivize producers to abate more, inform buyers on making lower carbon choices in a standardized manner and identify more cost-efficient emissions reduction options.
As part of our lower carbon journey at Chevron Oronite, we have developed a cradle-to-gate Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) calculation methodology to evaluate the carbon intensity of our products. This model includes relevant greenhouse gas emissions associated with product production, covering raw material procurement, and the manufacturing of our additive chemicals and formulated products. Additional contributions from waste transportation and treatment, intercompany transfers, upstream fuels and electricity production, and off-site storage have also been included. The system boundary specifically excludes packaging, outbound transportation, and any use or end of life stages. Our methodology has been reviewed by TUV Rheinland for compliance with ISO 14067:2018 standards and Together for Sustainability guidelines.
Here are a few things we’re working on to lower the carbon intensity of our products.
product design criteria
As future additive chemistries and technology formulations are developed, the product carbon footprint is now evaluated as part of our standard design criteria. We look for innovative, lower carbon intensity materials, and new processing technologies for the next generation of high-performance lubricants while simultaneously lowering the product carbon intensity.
raw material selection
Chevron Oronite is collaborating with many of our suppliers to obtain high quality primary carbon footprint data for our purchased materials. We are also working closely with our suppliers to help identify and foster product carbon footprint reduction opportunities, including the use of renewable, recycled, and other lower carbon intensity materials.
chemical manufacturing and additive package blending
Chevron Oronite utilizes the same robust Chevron marginal abatement cost curve (MACC) process for identifying reduction opportunities across our facilities. This includes investing in new processing equipment with higher efficiency, incorporating renewable energy from sources such as solar, wind, and hydroelectric, upgrading our steam systems, improving waste management, and modernizing our operations. To date, more than half of our facilities use renewable electricity and we are looking for ways to expand this even more.
finished lubricant formulations
We collaborate with our customers to help enable lower carbon intensity finished lubricants. This includes delivering innovative additive technology designed to be used with lower carbon intensity base oils and lowering the treat rates of our additive packages.
our lower carbon stories
Singapore Manufacturing Plant receives award
Chevron Oronite's Singapore Manufacturing Plant (SMP) won the 2023 “Excellence in Energy, Greenhouse Gas Management” award at the Energy Efficiency National Partnership (EENP) Awards presented by Singapore’s National Environment Agency (NEA) for its efforts to lower carbon intensity of operations and energy management.
SMP completed about 30 energy improvement and lowering carbon intensity projects from 2019 to 2022. During those years, these projects had a cumulative energy savings of about 4.5% of SMP’s annual energy usage and a carbon abatement of 3700 tonnes of CO2. One notable lower carbon project is the utilization of rooftop spaces above buildings to install 275 solar panels. In 2023, these panels generated 155,000 kWh of electrical energy annually and 60 tonnes CO2 of carbon abatement.
lower carbon intensity base stocks
Adoption of re-refined base oil (RRBO) is increasing globally in lubricant and additive formulations; driven by a growth in capacity, improved quality, and lower carbon intensity.
Chevron Oronite is working to support our customer’s needs for lower carbon intensity finished oil formulations by developing additive technology and test data with re-refined base oils. To date, we have developed over 100 finished oil formulations using RRBO for our global automotive product line covering both heavy-duty and passenger car applications to help support customers on their lower carbon journey.
In addition, we are actively developing plans to use re-refined base oil in our manufacturing facilities as process oils and diluent oils to help lower our own product carbon intensity. We are qualifying new RRBO suppliers through our rigorous change management process, and are working to understand chain of custody approaches, such as mass balance, to help enable our customers to benefit from these lower carbon intensity base stocks.
reduction of treat rates
Lowering the treat rate of an additive package can help lower the carbon footprint of the finished oil formulation by replacing a higher carbon intensity component (the additives) with a lower carbon intensity component (the base oil).
In our automotive engine oil (AEO) product line, we are working to lower the treat rates of both our heavy-duty and passenger car formulations. For example, in our heavy-duty AEO product line we have reduced the overall treat rate by up to 20% in our latest product offers. Likewise in our passenger car AEO product line, we have achieved reductions up to 14% for the most recent engine oil categories. In addition to lowering the product carbon intensity, these optimizations also help reduce freight/logistics costs and transportation greenhouse gas emissions.
BioSynergy supply agreement with Chevron Oronite's Gonfreville Plant
The Chevron Oronite plant in Gonfreville, France entered into a supply agreement with BioSynergy in 2023 to provide approximately 40% of the plant’s steam needs for the next 10 years. BioSynergy will supply steam from an 80% biomass and 20% solid recovered fuel to production units and is expected to reduce approximately 25,000 tonnes per year of associated CO2 emissions.
