Hydrodec purchased by U.K. company that specializes in oil recycling

Edd Pritchard, The Repository
·2 min read
Hydrodec operates an facility at 2021 Steinway Blvd SE in Canton that processes and treats used oil from transformers. The local company has been purchased by Slicker Recycling, a British environmental business.
Hydrodec operates an facility at 2021 Steinway Blvd SE in Canton that processes and treats used oil from transformers. The local company has been purchased by Slicker Recycling, a British environmental business.

CANTON – Canton-based Hydrodec North America has been acquired by a British-based company that specializes in recycling and treating waste lubrication oils.

Slicker Recycling, based outside of Birmingham, England, purchased Hydrodec in November. Terms of the deal weren't released.

HYDRODEC: Canton operation specializes in recycling used oil from transformers.

SLICKER RECYCLING: British company that recycles used lubricants has purchased Hydrodec.

The deal helps Slicker Recycling enter the North American market and broaden its global footprint. In 2020, Slicker worked to Avista AG, a German company, on a $95 million joint venture project to open an oil re-refinery in Denmark.

Hydrodec is an oil re-refining operation that collects used and contaminated transformer and naphthenic oils, treats the oil and resells the product as SUPERfine transformer oil.

According to a press release issued by Slicker Recycling, 19 Hydrodec employees now are part of the British company.

Mark Olpin, managing director for Slicker Recycling, pledged to help Hydrodec grow.

Mark Olpin, managing director of Slicker Recycling, a British environmental business that has purchased Hydrodec, which processes and treats used oil from transformers in a facility at 2021 Steinway Blvd SE in Canton.
Mark Olpin, managing director of Slicker Recycling, a British environmental business that has purchased Hydrodec, which processes and treats used oil from transformers in a facility at 2021 Steinway Blvd SE in Canton.

"Hydrodec is a well-respected, technologically advanced and successful business with customers across the United States and global energy sector," Olpin said in the release.

Hydrodec formed in 2001 after research by Australia’s government-backed Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation developed processes for removing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from used naphthenic transformer oil.

The company built its first facility in Australia, with the second plant constructed at the Stein Industrial Park in southeast Canton. While the local facility still is operating, Hydrodec disposed of the Australian facility in 2019.

An explosion and fire in December 2013 temporarily closed the Canton plant. Hydrodec reopened in 2015 after rebuilding and expanding the operation.

A year later, Hydrodec received carbon credits through the American Carbon Registry, allowing the company to attach carbon offsets to the processed transformer oil it sells. Olpin said the carbon offset credits are a global first for a company processing used oils, and that the credits create a revenue stream for the company.

"That's a really exciting opportunity for us," Olpin said in the release, adding that Hydrodec is a prefect fit for Slicker Recycling's future plans and green credentials.

Slicker Recycling describes itself as an environmental group.

The company said its joint venture in Denmark has processed more than 110 million liters of lubricant base oils, saving an estimated 40,000 tons of carbon emissions.

A week after announcing its purchase of Hydrodec, Slicker Recycling announced "an environmentally-driven partnership" to recycle lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries in the United Kingdom.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Canton-based Hydrodec North America purchased by Slicker Recycling