Supporting the Recycling of Lubrication Oil, with Intertek Expertise
Anthony Sweetland, Lab Manager at Sunbury, UK, for leading total quality assurance provider Intertek, examines what to do with Lubrication Oil after use.
With widespread use of Oil Condition Monitoring schemes such as Intertek’s marine Lubricant Quality Scan, AeroCHECK and TurbineCHECK, all of which enable lubricating oils to be changed during a routine maintenance service rather than as problems occur, the question then arises, what to do with used lubrication oil?
Some sources of ‘re-cycling’ are merely direct disposal and burning of the used oil. This is expensive and unsustainable environmentally as many undesirable elements can be released into the atmosphere this way. Options are available which reduce the cost to the used oil producer and which help with environmental concerns. Two of the most popular options are re-refining and re-processing.
oils while heavier items remain in the distillation unit. Finally an extraction process can take place which removes unwanted compounds such as aromatics remaining within the oil.
Intertek can test and inspect base oils for quality control, troubleshooting and supply-chain bulk cargo inspection on a global basis. Base oil testing helps to ensure quality throughout the re-refining process and can also be used with problem solving, formulation and contamination issues. All base oils produced through re-refining will need to comply with various regulations and specifications dependent upon country and usage, so independent testing of the stocks is crucial and typically will include ASTM/IP or ISO standard analysis for properties such as viscosity, copper strip corrosion, acid number and sulphur.
Re-Processed lubrication oil can be converted into fuel oil and distillate oil. There are a number of ways in which this is done, but all the processes aim to remove water, sediment, metals, etc that may be present in the used lube oil. The reprocessed fuel oil (PFO) and distillate oil can then be sold on to various areas such as cement and steel works.
Re-refining aims to remove the additive packages and contaminants from the used lubrication oil with the aim of producing a base oil stock of the same or better quality than virgin base oil. Re-refining uses less energy to convert used lubrication oil to a base oil than refining the same amount of base oil directly from a crude oil would use. It is generally a two to three step process in which the oil is heated in a closed container to remove water. It is then distilled under vacuum where lighter hydrocarbons such as diesel boil off and are removed, followed by the lube
24
In the mid-2000s there was increasing uncertainty within the UK as to when a PFO ceased to be classified as waste under EU directives, which meant a number of opportunities to prevent oil going to landfill or other waste areas was missed. The UK Environment Agency (EA) created a Quality Protocol which laid down set criteria to ensure that the PFO could be classed as a fuel rather than waste.
A number of methods of analysis that would demonstrate the PFO compliance to the Quality Protocol were not in existence at the time so a working group involving the EA, PFO producers, the Energy Institute (EI) and Intertek
set out to design and develop such methods, mostly for the presence of metals such as mercury, lead and copper. The methods were developed and a number of correlation samples were sent to various laboratories throughout the world which enabled repeatability and reproducibility of the methods to be assessed, which would be needed, should any contaminant potentially fail the limits set out in the Quality Protocol.
Intertek Sunbury provides both routine and non-routine analytical capabilities for a wide range of customers in the hydrocarbon and petrochemicals industries. It boasts a diverse portfolio of equipment, allowing a vast range of analytical requests to be carried out from specification testing to problem solving issues throughout the supply chain, often involving bespoke or one off method developments.
Tony Sweetland has been the Intertek Sunbury Laboratory Manager for the past three years. For the previous 11 years Tony was a Technical Specialist in metals determination, notably mercury and was on the EA/EI Working Group developing methods for the new PFO Quality Protocol. Prior to joining Intertek in 2002, he worked in various environmental laboratories processing a wide range of samples.
LINK
www.intertek.com/petroleum/pfo-uk
LUBE MAGAZINE NO.137 FEBRUARY 2017
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
