SECTOR FOCUS: RE-REFINING
Regenerated base oils for a circular and decarbonised lube supply chain
Valentina Lucchini, Chief Sustainability Officer, Itelyum
Used mineral lubricating oils represent the largest amount of liquid, non-aqueous hazardous waste in the world. Moreover, waste oils have a high potential to pollute: if spilled, the used oil penetrates the ground poisoning the aquifer that provides drinking and irrigation water. If dispersed in water, oil will float, forming an impermeable film that causes the death, due to lack of oxygen, of everything that lives below it. If burned improperly, the used oil releases polluting substances into the atmosphere that can cause intoxication and disease.
Figure 1: Waste oil treatment total EU-28, input in kt/a, years 2014, 2016 At EU level, about 38%1 of the lubricant oils placed
on the market (4.3 million tonnes) was collected as waste oil (1.6 million tonnes). This corresponds to a collection rate of collectable waste oil of about 82% (share of the actual collected waste oil of the collectable waste oil), with big differences among countries (e.g. In Italy, almost 100% of the collectable waste is collected.)
The main options for the treatment of waste oil are re-refining to base oils, preparation of fuels, energy recovery and hazardous waste incineration.
In Europe, thanks to the waste management hierarchy (defined in the Waste Framework Directive) that prioritises the regeneration (re-refining) of waste oil over its use as fuel and other energy recovery, most of the collected waste oils are sent to regeneration, which is the most environmentally positive destination. Moreover, re-refining of waste oils is a source of locally produced regenerated product, contributing to the reliability of the supply chain.
1
In addition, re-refining waste oils is a perfect model of the circular economy: thanks to advanced technologies, which have been developed and implemented over the years, it is possible to produce regenerated base oils with the same qualitative characteristics as those produced from primary sources or from virgin stocks.
In order to thrive in increasingly competitive markets and taking into consideration the tighter and tighter specifications of the automotive industry, research and development has been continuously improved, to offer high quality re-refined base oils.
Regenerated base oils bring performance as well as sustainability, guaranteed by the circularity of the business model.
Table 1: Typical output of the re-fining process
Source: GEIR 2019
Source: Öko-Institut e.V, 2020 “Study to support the Commission in gathering structured information and defining of reporting obligations on waste oils and other hazardous waste”
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LUBE MAGAZINE NO.166 DECEMBER 2021
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