Major pathways for used oil disposal and recycling. Part 2

One of the main concerns with lubricating oil relates to used oil management for both industrial and engine oils, although the environmental impact of gasoline and diesel engine oils is the most critical. Provided that efficient management systems are in place, most used oil should not reach the environment, so, the major question is 'how should we dispose of collected used oil'? The first option lies in burning it as a fuel, the second in recycling (re-claiming, reprocessing, re-refining). The latter allows recovery of mineral base oils, which are valuable constituents of crude oil. In the first part of this paper, the author looked at the problems associated with used oil, its use as a fuel, and simple recycling. He went on to look at major re-refining processes, starting with hydrogenation (KTI, Mohawk, BERC/NIPER, and PROP technologies). In Part 2 he covers other processes, including Safety Kleen, IFP/Snamprogetti, UOP Hylube, and vacuum distillation and clay treatment technologies.