Around half of total purchased lubricants are lost during use or through leakage, with the other half of purchased lubricants ending up as waste oil.
The global waste oil market in 2023 was valued at 54.3 Bn US$ and is forecast to grow up to 85.2 Bn US$ by 2032 [4].
Legal aspects Collection and treatment of waste oil in the EU is defined by Directive (EU) 2018/851 [5] of 30 May 2018 amending Directive 2008/98/EC on waste.
According to the UK European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 [6], the Directive (EU) 2018/851 was incorporated into UK domestic law, which means that same definitions of regeneration and recycling are used in the UK.
GEIR is the European re-refining industry section of the UEIL, which represents and advocates for the re-refining industry within Europe. In Figure 3 key facts about re-refining according to GEIR are given [7].
classified as hazardous waste and represent one of the most hazardous liquid waste stream in the EU.
Managing waste oils
At the moment, the average EU collection rate for waste oils is about 82% [9] which is still high considering that only seven Member States have legally binding waste oil collection targets in their legalisation [9].
Generally waste oil could be used for: • Regeneration – where the waste oil is re-refined into re-refined base oil;
• Incineration as industrial burner oil – where the used oil is dewatered, filtered and demineralised for use in industrial burners;
• Conversion to fuel – where waste oil through pyrolysis process can be converted to diesel fuel component which can be used for blending with diesel fuel;
• Other – where the waste oil could be used as mold oil to help release products from their molds (e.g., pressed metal products, concrete), bitumen-based products, etc.
In Figure 4 we can see in which purpose the collected waste oil are used in Member States through EU.
Figure 3: Key Facts about Re-refining
As we can see from the above figure, during production of re-refined base oil from waste oil through re-refining processes, 71% less emission of CO2
from virgin crude oil.
Lubricants are made by blending base oils and additives. Engine oils which are used in the automotive, marine and industrial sectors represent up to half of oil lubricants placed on the market [8]. Next to them are hydraulic oils which account for 15% - 20% of all lubricants placed on the market.
When these oils become waste, they are mostly
As we can see only in seven countries, 90% or more of collected waste oil are used in re-refining process while in the most countries this level is much lower. Also, there are countries in which the collected waste oil streams do not end in re-refining at all.
Assumptions are that in 2050 the EU-27 total waste generation will be between 1.7 and 2 million tons [9].
Continued on page 22 LUBE MAGAZINE NO.187 JUNE 2025 21
Figure 4: Waste oil use per treatment is produced compared to production of base oil
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72
