Startup making motor oil from palm biodiesel byproduct

Stock of a tiny company called Nano Chemical Systems Holdings (BULLETIN BOARD: NCSH) is up about twenty percent today after announcing that it may have found a way to turn a biodiesel waste product into automotive oils. 

Nano Chemical thinks it may be able to make environmentally friendly "green" oils and lubricants from a waste by-product from palm oil-based biodiesel using nanotechnology.

Soy-based biodiesel is the standard for performance at low temperatures, with a relatively low cloud point. Palm-based biodiesel must be processed to remove these materials. In one process, methyl ester component materials are removed to ensure a cloud point consistent with soy-based biodiesel.

The company's patent-pending process involves adding nano-scale molybdenum metal ball bearings. These finished product could "yield the advantages of longer machine life from reduced ware [sp] and superior performance at high temperatures and pressures associated with 'moly' lubricants from the automobile race track that are soon to be available at a low-consumer price point," the company said in a statement.

The oils and lubricants would be highly biodegradable, the company said, and removing the problems of hazardous waste disposal.

Further, the new process of incorporating the waste byproduct into high value lubricants could bring biodiesel costs below the price of crude oil, accounting for the revenue generated by producing nano-enhanced oils and lubricants, the company estimated.

Nano Chemical acknowledged a number of testing, process, specification, approval, supply channel and distribution channel issues would need to be overcome before the products could be offered for sale.

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