FCC Environmental to Start Work on $50M Used Oil Recycling Facility in Baltimore in Q2 2014

By Adrian Maties, Associate Editor

FCC Environmental, a Houston-based service provider of waste oil collection and processing, announced it will break ground on a used motor oil recycling facility in Baltimore, in the second quarter of 2014.

Work on the project started in February 2012, with the preliminary layout of the facility, topographical surveys and soil borings. The construction of the facility was scheduled to begin in fall 2012, following the issuance of environmental and construction permits. However, FCC Environmental only recently received an air permit to construct from the Maryland Department of the Environment.

The Houston-based company now plans to start construction in the first months of 2014. The facility is expected to cost $50 million. It will be located on a six-acre parcel of land on the former Chevron Asphalt Terminal in Fairfield, an under-utilized brownfield site south of the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel (1-895).

The state-of-the-art facility is expected to cost $50 million and to open in the second quarter of 2015. When fully operational, it is expected to process almost 40 million gallons of used motor oil each year. Approximately 1.2 billion gallons of used motor oil are collected in the U.S. annually. The Baltimore plant will recycle the used motor oil back into Group II and II+ base oils that will be sold and transported off-site via trucks and rail to be processed into passenger car motor oils, heavy duty engine oils, transmission fluids and other lubricating products.

“The environmental systems associated with the recycling facility will be comprised of the best technology available, as one would expect, to control the air emissions,” said Ken Cherry, executive vice president and general manager of FCC Environmental, in a press statement. “We believe these emission controls will become the model for future similar plants.”

The project is expected to create 100 construction jobs. The facility will employ 30 full-time workers. Many of these positions will be classified as ”green.”

FCC Environmental is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas. The Madrid, Spain-based company is one of the largest environmental service providers in the world, with more than 90,000 employees operating in over 50 countries.

Photo credits: FCC Environmental