Technology For Rerefining Used Lube Oils Applied in Europe: A Review

Review
Received: 4 February 2013
Revised: 28 May 2013
Accepted article published: 7 June 2013
Published online in Wiley Online Library: 5 July 2013
(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI 10.1002/jctb.4137
Technology for rerefining used lube oils

applied in Europe: a review
Maki-Arvela
Antonina Kupareva, Paivi

and Dmitry Yu. Murzin
Abstract
The European oil rerefining industry is comprised of 28 plants treating waste oil, which represent one-third in volume of the
total European market for lubricants. The biggest European rerefineries with capacity greater than 40 000 tons/year apply
various technologies for recycling of used oils from different sources. Used oil recycling technology has undergone significant
changes over the past decade. With the newly developed rerefining technologies it is possible to produce higher quality
base oil compared with the traditional and old acid clay methods. Currently in Europe the following re-refining methods are
widely used: solvent extraction (N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (Germany), Interline process (United Kingdom, Spain)); combined
vacuum distillation and solvent extraction (Vaxon process (Denmark, Spain); hydroprocessing (Hylube process (Germany));
combined thin film evaporation and hydrofinishing (CEP process (Finland)); combined thermal de-asphalting and hydrofinishing
(Revivoil process (Italy, Poland, and Spain)). The majority of applied technologies in Europe is appropriate for rerefining of
synthetic lubricating oils, which currently are replacing the conventional mineral lube oils due to their enhanced performance
characteristics. However, for the rerefining technologies applying alkaline treatment (CEP, Vaxon) and hydrofinishing step
(Cyclon, Snamprogetti, Revivoil) the amount of synthetic or semi-synthetic oils based on esters in the feedstock should be
eliminated, since these oils are less stable under alkali and hydrofinishing conditions.
c 2013 Society of Chemical Industry

Keywords: solvent extraction; hydrofinishing; used oil rerefining; base oil; thin film evaporation
INTRODUCTION
1780
Nowadays, there are a vast number of applications using lube

oils, such as internal combustion engines, vehicle and industrial
gearboxes, compressors, turbines or hydraulic systems and others.
The most important function of lubricants is the reduction of
friction and wear. Mineral oil components continue to form
the quantitatively most important foundation of lubricants and
represent mixtures of different types of hydrocarbons with
aliphatic hydrocarbons predominant and chemical additives. In
contrast with mineral oil-based oils, that contain many different
hydrocarbons, and nitrogen-, oxygen-, and sulfur-containing
chemical derivatives of these hydrocarbons, synthetic base
oils usually are prepared from a few well-defined chemical
compounds, although in many cases based on petroleum also.
Synthetic oils can be based on the following compounds:
alkylated aromatic compounds, polybutenes, dibasic acid esters,
polyalphaolefins, poly(alkylene glycol)s, neopentyl polyol esters,
silicones, perfluoralkyl polyethers and several others. Similar to
mineral base oil, synthetic base oils generally cannot satisfy the
requirements of high performance lubricants without modern
additives. Moreover, some lube oil applications accept vegetable
oils, which are biodegradable and contain long chain fatty acids in
their composition.
Nowadays, globally different automotive and industrial sources
generate large amounts of used lubricating oils, which present
a serious pollution problem. Estimation of regional and global
demands for lubricants demonstrated that Western Europe
accounts for only 13% of total worldwide demand, while North
America and Asia account for 22% and 30%, respectively, probably
due to the widespread use of automobiles compared with other
J Chem Technol Biotechnol 2013; 88: 17801793
regions.1 4 Due to high lube oil consumption various countries

have designed their own systems for management of waste oils.
The rerefining industry has become an important industry in
many countries, such as USA,1 5 Australia,6 and Saudi Arabia.7
Worldwide there are about 400 oil rerefining plants using a variety
of technologies, with an overall capacity of 1.8 million tons/year.3
The ability to recycle waste oils is very closely linked to the oils
composition, level, type of contamination and of course economic
aspects. There are about 200 oil recyclers in North America alone.3
Of these, only three are primarily rerefiners, which recover lube
oil for reuse. The others recycle waste oil by producing fuel
for burning/energy recovery. The number of rerefining plants in
Europe is 28, of which 17 produce base oils.8 The industry has a
theoretical nameplate capacity of 1.3 million tons corresponding
to total turnover of between 200 and 250 million per year.8
According to European Commission resources,8 10 about 5.7
million tons of lubricating oils are consumed in Europe annually,
with automotive and industrial sectors accounting for 65% and
35%, respectively. Such a scale of operation generates ca. 2.7
million tons of used oil, or in other words around 48% of the total
lube oil consumption. Of the latter quantity, only about 73%, or
2.0 million tons, is collected, therefore approximately 0.7 million
tons or 23% is assumed to be lost or illegally burnt or dumped
Correspondence to: Paivi Maki-Arvela, Abo

Akademi University, Process
Chemistry Centre, Laboratory of Industrial Chemistry and Reaction Engineering,
Finland. E-mail: pmakiarv@abo.fi
FI-20500 Turku/Abo,
Akademi University, Process Chemistry Centre, Laboratory of Industrial
Abo
Finland
Chemistry and Reaction Engineering, FI-20500, Turku/Abo,
www.soci.org

Technology for rerefining used lube oils applied in Europe
www.soci.org
Table 1. Overview of European lube consumption, used oil collection and recycling industry8
Country
Lubricants
consumption 2006,
tons103 /year
Germany
1174
45
798
United Kingdom
France
Spain
800
765
545
44
30
29
50*
125
184
Italy
542
40
303
Poland
351
22
Netherlands
Belgium
Greece
Finland
Denmark
252
142
100
79
68
20
42
36
29
30
Collected
used oil 2006, %
Total used
oil capacity
2010, tons103
88*
170
40
52
60
40
Applied technologies
Hylube
MRD process
Acid/clay treatment
and others
Interline
Ecohuile process
Interline
Vaxon
Revivoil
and others
Revivoil
Snamprogetti
Acid/clay
and others
Revivoil
and others
Propak thermal cracking process
Cyclon and others
CEP process
Vaxon
Products
base oils + by-products; fuels
base oil + by-products


base oil + by-products, fuels
gas oils, fuels
*2009
in the environment. Engine oil represents more than 70% of the

collectable waste oil and industrial oils comprise the balance of
30%. About 35% of the collected oil is rerefined into base oil; the
remaining 65% is burnt replacing coal (10%), or used as heavy fuel
oil (45%) and unknown other products (10%). The available data
concerning consumed, collected and rerefined lubricating oils in
European countries are summarized in Table 1.8
The main EU documents11 14 addressing used oil issues are the
Waste Framework Directive (WFD), which was preceded by the
Waste Oil Directive (WOD), the Waste Incineration Directive (WID)
and the European Waste Catalogue (EWC). Waste oils are governed
by Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC, especially by Article 21,
which stipulates that Member States shall take necessary measures
to ensure that
Waste oils are collected separately, where this is technically
feasible;
Waste oils are treated in accordance with Articles 4 (waste
hierarchy) and 13 (protection of the environment and human
health);
Where this is technically feasible and economically viable, waste
oils of different characteristics are not mixed with each other
with other kinds of waste or substances, if such mixing impedes
their treatment.
Figure 1. Flow diagram of the typical used oil rerefining process.
with virgin base oils. The principle of refining waste oils utilizes the
following four steps: dewatering and defueling, de-asphalting,
fractionation and finishing process.16,17 The rerefining process is
depicted schematically in Fig. 1.
As mentioned earlier, the majority of collected lube oils in
Europe is automotive oils. The main functions of lubricating oils
include reducing friction, carrying away heat, protecting against

wileyonlinelibrary.com/jctb
1781
Due to the increasing necessity for environmental protection

and more and more strict environmental legislation the disposal
and recycling of waste oils has become very important. The
recycling of waste lubricating oils can be accomplished with the
following different methods:15 used oil reprocessing, reclamation
and rerefining. The products of used oil reprocessing and reclamation are lubricating fluids with low quality requirements and
heating and fuel oils, respectively, while rerefining of the used oil
leads to production of valuable base oils with quality comparable
www.soci.org
A Kupareva, P Maki-Arvela, DY Murzin
Table 2. Typical composition of lubricating oils18

Weight
percentage, %
Compound
Base oil
Viscosity index improvers (polyisobutylene,
polymethacrylate)
Oxidation inhibitor (zinc dialkyl, dithiophosphate)
Detergent (barium and calcium sulphonates or
phenates)
Multi-functional additives (dispersant, pour point
depressant)
86
5
1
4
4
rust, protecting against wear and removing contaminants from the

engine. All the above-mentioned properties are obtained owing
to the package of additives carefully incorporated in appropriate
quantities. A typical blend of lubricating oil is shown in Table 2.18
The separation of the lubricant base oils from additives, asphalts
and other contaminants contained in the used oil has been
performed traditionally by distillation and acid/clay treatment,
however, these traditionally applied technologies have been
banned due to the following problems:
Equipment fouling, in particular in the distillation equipment,
reducing the operational time of the plant.
Thermal cracking reactions reducing the yield and leading to
low quality base oils (colour, odour, unstability, etc.), which is
difficult to improve in the final treatment.
Environmental difficulties due to the acid-clay waste disposal,
emission of unpleasant odours and contaminated water.
To avoid thermal cracking and fouling, several processes have
been developed, employing high vacuum (about 1 mbar) in
the distillation, thus separating asphalts and additives at lower
temperatures (falling film evaporator, short path distillation, etc.).
As an alternative to the separation of asphalts and additives by
vacuum distillation, extraction processes, using liquid solvents,
have been developed (solvent de-asphalting). These processes
operate at near ambient temperatures, thus avoiding to a large
extent the equipment fouling problems and the cracking of
asphalts, additives and breakdown products since these are
separated before distillation of the lubricant bases.
Acid and clay treatment has been avoided in other processes
by treating the distilled base oils with alkaline hydroxides or
by catalytic hydrogenation. Modern processes combine these
technologies in different ways, trying to optimize investment and
operational costs, while producing a competitive quality product,
without creating environmental problems. Table 3 demonstrates

the key properties of used oils as well as the property changes
that occur after rerefining.15,19
The properties of rerefined used lube oils are similar to the
fresh ones. The American Petroleum Institute (API) categorized
base oils by composition (API Publication 1509) in 1993, as shown
in Table 4. Modern regeneration technologies allow to produce
premium quality base oils belonging to at least Group I according
to the API base oils classification. Under more severe or solvent
finishing conditions, Group II base oils could be obtained.20
This work overviews the available literature in waste oil recycling
technologies currently in use in European countries. It may,
however, be noted that the technologies described do not cover
all technologies applied in Europe, but only those that have a
capacity higher than 40 000 tons/year with the primary task being
production of base oil. The majority of existing papers report only
the main block schemes of processes without providing detailed
information, which is often unavailable. Since, in todays markets,
the fractions of synthetic and semi-synthetic compounds used
have increased significantly up to 30%,3 and keep on growing, the
applicability of currently used rerefining technologies is addressed.
DESCRIPTION OF DIFFERENT REREFINING

PROCESS TECHNOLOGIES
Acid-clay rerefining process
The acid-clay rerefining process was the first regeneration process
commercialized in the 1960s by many companies in the USA,
wherein large amounts of sulphuric acid and clay were used to
treat the waste oils.21 Acid-clay rerefining processes have been
widely used by rerefining facilities. Used oil is pre-treated (preflash or vacuum distillation) for separation of water and light
hydrocarbons. Concentrated sulfuric acid (1015 wt%) is added
into dehydrated waste oil, wherein the foreign substances (e.g.
additives and sulfides) will form sludge, enabling deposition within
1648 h which is thereafter separated from the waste oil. The
Table 4. API base oil categories

Group
Sulfur, wt%
I
II
III
IV
V
Saturates, wt%
Viscosity index
<90
80119
90
80119
90
120
All polyalphaolefins (PAOs)
All others not included in Groups I, II, III or IV
>0.03
0.03
0.03
Table 3. Properties of used oils, intermediate products during rerefining15,19

Feed of hydrogenation
Properties
1782
Water content, %
Density at 15 C, kg m-3
Kinematic viscosity at 40 C, mm2 s-1
Flash point, C
Total acid number, mg KOH g-1
Sulfur content, mg kg-1
Zinc content, mg kg-1
Used oil
Feed of vacuum distillation
10
900
80
>60
<2.4
4000
650
Rerefined oil
light
heavy
light
<1
<1
<1
215
4.0
4000
650
154
1.5
3000
<1
193
0.5
3000
<1
182
0.01
600
<1
210
0.01
600
<1

heavy
www.soci.org
Figure 2. Block flow diagram of the acid-clay rerefining process adapted

from Refs 1,17.
impurities such as colloids, organic acids and waxy substances are

removed by clays (porcelain clay or aluminum silicate). Filtered oil
is distilled to produce base oils with various characteristics and
gas-oil. Figure 2 provides the flow chart of the process.
The base oil obtained has low quality with a lubricating yield of
6263% on dry basis.22 The product oils are dark in colour and tend
to have a noticeable odour. Moreover, the products have from 4 to
17 times higher content of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH)
than virgin oils.
While the technology has relatively low capital costs and
simplicity of operations, as well as allowing production of
acceptable, although sub-standard, base oils, it also generates
acid tar, oil saturated clay, and other hazardous waste by-products.
Under increasing environmental pressure this technology has been
banned in most countries including many developing countries.
Several plants with low capacity in Italy, Belgium and Germany still
employ this technology8 (Table 1).
The treated feed is hydrogenated in the main reactor before the

second separation step. The Hylube unit operates with reactor
section pressures of 6080 bar and reactor temperatures in the
range 300350 C.24 As the feed is processed in hydrofinishing
reactors, contaminants are removed and the quality of the lube
base oil is rejuvenated and enhanced. In addition to converting
hetero-atoms such as sulfur and nitrogen, the catalyst is able to
increase the viscosity index via saturation of multi-ring aromatic
compounds. After the hydrogenation, products are stripped and
separated in the fractionation tower to gasoline, petroleum, gas
oil and base oil fractions. Light ends from the high temperature
separator are blended with sodium carbonate and flowed to the
low temperature separator, where the waste water is settled and
separated. The hydrogen rich vapor from the cold separator is
scrubbed, compressed, reheated and returned to the mixer.
The hydrocarbon liquids collected in the separators are sent to
the product fractionation section where the products are separated
into various cuts to meet the desired lube oil viscosity grades.
The processed feedstock is converted into a wide boiling range
hydrocarbon product, which is subsequently fractionated into
neutral oil products of different viscosity to be used for lube oil
blending. Due to hydrogenation the properties of three different
base oil products are the same as the properties of fresh Group II
base oils (Table 5).25 The Hylube process achieves more than 85%
Table 5. Properties of base oil products of Hylube-process15

Base oils
Properties
Flash point, C
Pour point, C
Kinematic viscosity at
40 C, mm2 s-1
100 C, mm2 s-1
Viscosity index
Sulfur content, ppm
Saturates, %wt
Light grade Medium grade Heavy grade

(PUR- 75*)
(PUR- 160*)
(PUR- 300*)
850
190
12
13.5
3.19
100
100
90
855
215
12
29.5
5.2
115
100
90
860
228
12
58
8.4
116
100
90
*Here and below Saybolt viscosities.

1783
Hylube process
Germany is the leader both in lubricants consumption and
rerefining according to the European Re-refining Industry section
of the Independent Union of the European Lubricants Industry
(GEIR) data (Table 1). About 44% of the total used oil capacity goes
to base oil production; the remainder is used for other products
including fuels, transformer oils, gasoil, etc. The Hylube process
allows production of mainly base oils.
The HyLube process is a proprietary process developed by
Universal Oil Products (UOP) for the catalytic processing of used
lube oils into rerefined lube base stocks for reblending into saleable
lube base oils.23 This is the first rerefining process in which as
received used oil is processed, without any pretreatment, in a
pressurized hydrogen environment.
A typical HyLube process feedstock consists of a blend of used
lube oils containing high concentrations of particulate matter such
as iron and spent additive contaminants such as zinc, phosphorous,
and calcium.21
A HyLube process unit has been successfully commercialized
by Puralube GmbH located in Elsteraue / Zeitz, Germany, using
technology licensed to Puralube by UOP LLC. A simplified block
diagram of the process is shown in Fig. 3. The first part of
the process involves separation of the lube range and lighter
components of the feed from the non-distillable residue portion.
After the separation step the light feed is flowed through the
so-called guard reactor where metal-containing compounds and
other impurities are accumulated in the large pore size catalyst.
Figure 3. Block flow diagram of the Hylube process adapted from

Refs 2325.
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lube oil recovery from the lube boiling range hydrocarbon in the
feedstock.
Raffinerie Dollbergen (MRD) solvent extraction
Mineralol
process using N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone
Mineralol-Raffinerie
is the best known and largest rerefinery in
Germany, located near Hanover in an area with a distinctly rural
character. This technology has been processing and recycling
used oil and oily liquids since 1955. Today, the refinery has the
capacity to process 230 000 tons/year of used oil and oil-containing
liquids. Of these, 120 000 tons/year are used as feedstock for the
production of 70 000 tons/year of new base oils.26
The applied oil rerefining process is based on a patent held
by AVISTA OIL.27 The Enhanced Selective Refining process uses
solvent N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), which is commonly used
in the petroleum refining industry. NMP is a powerful, aprotic
solvent with low volatility, which shows selective affinity for
unsaturated hydrocarbons, aromatics, and sulfur compounds. Due
to its relative non-reactivity and high selectivity, NMP finds wide
applicability as an aromatic extraction solvent in lube oil rerefining.
The advantages of NMP over other solvents are the non-toxic
nature and high solvent power, absence of azeotropes formation
with hydrocarbons, the ease of recovery from solutes and its high
selectivity for aromatic hydrocarbons. Being a selective solvent
for aromatic hydrocarbons and PAH, NMP can be used for the
rerefining of waste oils with lower sludge, carbonaceous particles
and polymer contents, such as waste insulating, hydraulic and
other similar industrial oils.28
The MRD solvent extraction process uses the liquidliquid
extraction principle. Figure 4 provides the flow chart of the
process. Vacuum distillates from the flash distillation are used
as feed. These distillates are processed in a production cycle which
can be adjusted to the quantity to be processed. Before the
distillate enters the extraction column, any residues of dissolved
oxygen in the distillate are removed in an absorber using steam.

Thereafter the distillate is sent to the bottom part of the extraction
column. As the distillate rises, undesirable aromatic hydrocarbons
and other contaminants are separated out by the counter-flowing
heavier solvent, N-methyl pyrrolidone, which is fed in at the top
of the extraction column. The solvent containing raffinate phase
leaves the extraction column at the top and is routed to the
downstream raffinate recovery section consisting of a distillation
and a stripping column where the solvent is removed.
The extract phase is continuously withdrawn from the bottom
of the extraction column, cooled down to a defined temperature
and separated in a separation drum from the separated secondary
raffinate. The latter is returned to the extraction column in order to
optimize the process yield. The extract phase from the secondary
separation drum is sent to the extract recovery section where
the solvent is removed. The extract recovery section also consists
of a distillation and a stripping column. The resulting extract is
routed to the offplot intermediate storage tank and used within
the refinery as an energy carrier or mixing component for heavy oil.
The dry solvent separated in the distillation columns of the
raffinate and extract recovery sections is returned to the solvent
tank. The moist solvent separated in the stripping columns of the
raffinate and extract recovery sections is returned to the solvent
drying column, where excess water is removed.
The average base oil yield within the process is about 91%.29
The base oils produced have high quality (Table 6).30 The
process is characterized by optimized operating conditions which
allow elimination of toxic polyaromatic compounds from the
rerefined base oil and preservation of the synthetic base oils like
polyalphaolefin (PAO) or hydrocracked oils, which are increasingly
present in used oils.
Vaxon process
This technology is applied in the following two locations:
a 40 000 tons/year plant in Denmark (Kalundborg);
a 42 000 tons/year plant in Spain (Barcelona Taragona).
The process is an original Emprotec Vaxon technology. In
2000 Avista Oil (USA) bought the licence of the process and
commercialized the process under the name of Avista Oil Solvent
Extraction Vaxon Technology. This process contains chemical
treatment, vacuum distillation and solvent refining units. The
advantage of the Vaxon process is the special vacuum distillation,
where the cracking of oil is strongly decreased (Fig. 5).21
Table 6. Properties of base oil products of MRD Solvent extraction

process30
Base oils
Light grade Medium grade Heavy grade
(KS 100)
(KS 150)
(KS 200)
Properties
1784
Figure 4. Block flow diagram of the MRD Solvent extraction process using
N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone adapted from Ref 26.
Flash point, C
Pour point, C
40 C, mm2 s-1
100 C, mm2 s-1
Viscosity index
Sulfur content, wt%

852856
>220
12
2226
857860
>230
9
3236
860865
>230
9
4046
4.44.9
5.55.6
6.47.1
108112
0.25
110115
0.25
110115
0.25
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Figure 6. Block flow diagram of the CEP process adapted from

Refs 21,32, 33.
Figure 5. Vaxon process block flow diagram adapted from Refs 1,15, 31.
CEP process
The process was designed by Chemical Engineering Partners (CEP),
a process technology company offering a range of products and
services for rerefining waste lubricating oils. The CEP process is
located in Hamina, Finland and has a capacity of 60 000 tons/year
with base oil production of 42 000 tons/year.
The process combines thin film evaporation and hydroprocessing (Fig. 6). The used oil is chemically pretreated to avoid
precipitation of contaminants which can cause corrosion and
fouling of the equipment. The pretreating step is carried out
at temperatures from 80170 C. The chemical treatment compound comprises sodium hydroxide, which is added in a sufficient
amount to give a pH about 6.5 or higher.32 The pre-treated used
oil is first distilled for separation of water and light hydrocarbons.
Water is treated and sent to a waste water treatment facility. Light
hydrocarbons are used at the plant as fuel or sold as a product.
Thereafter, free-of-water oil is distilled under high vacuum in a thin
film evaporator for separation of diesel fuel, which can be used at
the plant or sold as fuel. Heavy materials such as residues, metals,
additive degradation products, etc. are passed to a heavy asphalt
flux stream.
The distillate is hydropurified at high temperature (315 C) and
pressure (90 bar) in a catalytic fixed bed reactor.37 This process
removes nitrogen, sulphur, chlorine and oxygenated organic
components.
In the final stage of the process, three hydrotreating (Hydrofinishing) reactors are used in series to reduce sulfur to less than
300 ppm and to increase the amount of saturated compounds to
over 95%, in order to meet the key specifications for API Group II

1785
Used oil is chemically treated with alkali-hydroxides (sodium

and potassium hydroxide) for removal of chlorides, metals,
additives and acidic compounds. The impurities can be bonded
with asphaltene molecules by these reactants, therefore these
impurities can be easily separated from the oil.
After the chemical treatment the oil is separated to light
products, catalyst, base oil and residue. The feed is distillated
to two parts by a cyclonic column. Because of the formation of
tangentially flowed thin film the light hydrocarbons are easily
and quickly distillated. The evaporated lighter part, consisting
of light hydrocarbons (gas, diesel fuel) and water, is condensed
in the upper part of the chamber, from where it is separated.
The heavier oil part, circulating in the bottom, is heated, thus
decreasing heat transfer and decreasing coke formation in
the chamber.
The process can be carried out in several evaporators at various
temperatures and pressure (i.e. from 160 to 345 C and vacuum
from 400 to 5 mbar) allowing separation of several oil cuts. Oil
from the distillation can contain some undesirable components
and should be additionally treated.
The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are separated by solvent
refining with polar solvents (dimethyl-formamide, N-methyl-2pirrolidone, etc.). This is carried out in a multi-stage extractor,
which is followed by solvent recovery from both phases. The
treated raffinate can be additionally distilled to obtain various
base oil cuts with yields of 6570%.12 The polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons, which concentrate in the extract, are used for heat
energy production or as bitumen blending component.
The chemical final stage does not, however, allow the production
of high quality base oils; although in Spain the Catalonia
refinery produces basestocks accepted by an original equipment
manufacturer (OEM).
As mentioned above, the technology belongs to Avista Oil,
which is one of the biggest producers of rerefined base oils in
Europe. Germany-based Avista has three rerefiniries in Europe,
Mineralol-Raffinerie
Dollbergen GmbH in Dollbergen, Germany,
Dansk Olie Genbrug A/S in Kahlundborg, Denmark and the North
Refining and Trading N.V., Netherlands. Furthermore, Avista Oil
holds a majority holding of about 75% in the Dutch rerefining
market since August 2012. In connection with this fact, the lube
distillate obtained from the Vaxon process (Denmark) or North
Refining (Netherlands) are precursors for the Avista Oil base, the
properties of which are listed in Table 6.
www.soci.org
Table 7. Properties of base oil products of CEP process34

Properties
Flash point, C
Pour point, C
Viscosity index
Sulfur content, ppm
Saturates, %wt
Medium grade (Base oil - N150)

840860
>200
<9
2632
56
>110
<300
>95
base oil (Table 7). The final step is vacuum distillation to separate
the hydrotreated base oil into multiple viscosity cuts in the
fractionator.
Hydroprocessing technology is one of the most widely used
distillation processes to eliminate undesirable components such
as sulphur, nitrogen, metals or unsaturated hydrocarbons. The
yield of base oils is about 70%.34
Ecohuile process
Ecohuile claims to rerefine about 125 000 tons of used oil annually
on the Lillebonne site, recycling 45% of the used motor oils
collected in France. The recycled oil corresponds to 10% of the
base oil market in France.
The rerefining process was based on vacuum distillation and
acid-clay treatment steps until the end of 2000.35 Clay adsorption
was banned on 1 January 2001 and the plant was modified and
upgraded to the Sotulub process.36 Moreover, the addition of
injection facilities of so-called Antipoll-additive (13 wt% of pure
sodium hydroxide) has been provided and has allowed solving the
following basic problems:
corrosion of dehydration column and cracking column top
section due to the organic acidity of the used oil;
plugging of equipment and piping due to polymer formation in
the cracking section;
high losses of base oil in the oily clay due to the high
consumption of clay.
1786
The Sotulub proces37 is based on treatment of the used oil

with an alkali additive called Antipoll and high vacuum distillation
(Fig. 7). The used oil is pre-heated to about 160 C and mixed with
a small amount of Antipoll-additive, which decreases equipment
fouling. In the next step, oil is drawn into the flash-drum where
water and light hydrocarbons are separated from the lubricating
base.
The dehydrated oil is additionally heated to 280 C and stripped
under vacuum to remove the gas-oil fraction. Thereafter oil is
distilled under high vacuum in a thin-film evaporator. In the
process asphaltic residue, containing heavy metals, additives,
polymers and degraded products, is separated from the bottom
of the column.
Distilled oil is condensed and treated again with a small amount
of Antipoll to eliminate all traces of undesirable compounds.
This allows a final product to be obtained with acceptable
quality without any additional finishing stage. Oil is additionally
fractionated to obtain various base oil cuts.
The process provides base oils with a yield of 8292%.36 The
properties of the product base oils are listed in Table 8.
Figure 7. Block flow diagram of the Sotulube process adapted from Ref 1.
Table 8. Properties of base oil products of Ecohuile process36

Base oils
Medium grade
SN 150
Properties
Flash point, C
Pour point, C
Metal contents, ppm
>200
<6
2733
<0.5 each
Heavy grade
SN 400
>230
<6
7685
<0.5 each
Cyclon process
The process licence belongs to Kinetic Technology International
(KTI).38 The industrial plant to implement the KTI Relube process
was built in Greece for LPC in 1982.35 Greek Cyclon Hellas Company
currently uses this technology with an annual capacity of 40 000
tons.
The process flow diagram of the Cyclon process is illustrated
in Fig. 8. Used oils taken from storage tanks are dewatered and
the light hydrocarbons are removed by distillation. The heavier
fraction is sent to high vacuum distillation, where the majority of
base oil components are evaporated from the heavy residue. The
oils in the residues are extracted with propane in the de-asphalting
unit and sent to the hydroprocessing unit where the other oils are
processed. Then they are treated with hydrogen and fractionated
based on the desired base oil features.
The rerefined base oil products have high quality due to the
hydrogenation.39,40 Information on the physical properties of the
obtained oils is not available in the literature.
Revivoil process
The Revivoil process was developed jointly by Axens and
Viscolube41 in Viscolube facilities. Currently the Revivoil process is
applied in the following locations:
a 130 000 tons/year plant in Italy (Pieve Fissiraga);
a 80 000 tons/year plant in Poland (Jedlicze);
a 59 000 tons/year plant in Spain (Huelva).

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Table 9. Properties of base oil products of Revivoil process43

Base oils
Properties
Light
grade
852
16.5
3.6
Viscosity index
101
Sulfur content, wt ppm
<300
Medium
grade
853
30.6
5.3
106
<300
Heavy
grade
858
55.2
7.8
107
<300
and saturated compounds fulfil the API Group II requirements

(Table 9).43
Figure 8. Flow diagram of the Cyclon process block adapted from

Refs 1, 20.
Figure 9. Block flow diagram of the Revivoil process adapted from

Refs 1, 15, 42.
Figure 10. Snamprogetti process block flow diagram adapted from

Refs 42, 45.

1787
Revivoil process is made up of three key sections: preflash,

thermal de-asphalting and hydrofinishing (Fig. 9).42 The filtered
used oil from storage tanks is heated to 140 C and then distilled
in a preflash column where the water and light hydrocarbons are
separated.
The dehydrated oil is distilled at 360 C in vacuum in a thermal deasphalting unit (TDA), where the oil is separated from substances
that can enhance fouling in an intermediate tank. The asphaltic
and bituminous products remain at the bottom and three side cuts
of different viscosities are obtained at the same time. Intermediate
gas oil is collected from the top of the column.
For improvement of the product quality, oil cuts after TDA
are treated with hydrogen over the catalyst. The hydrofinishing
process starts in a fired heater where the oil and hydrogen are
heated to 300 C. They are then sent to a reactor containing a
catalyst favouring hydrogenation of the unsaturated compounds,
as well as sulphur and nitrogen containing compounds. The reactor
effluent is then separated into two phases, the vapour phase and
the liquid phase; the first one is washed with water to remove the
chlorine and sulphur compounds, the second one is stripped with
steam to eliminate the most volatile compounds and restore the
flash point. The water contained in the oil after stripping is then
removed in a vacuum dryer.
The yield of base oils from the Revivoil process is about 72%.12
According to the operating parameters of hydrofinishing, the final
base oil quality can be upgraded until the amounts of sulphur
Snamprogetti process/ IFP technology

The process technology was developed by the Institut Francais du
Petrole and is also known as the Selecto Propane Process.44 One
plant of 84 000 tons/year capacity is working with this technology
in Ceccano, Italy.
The Snamprogetti process combines vacuum distillation and
hydrogenation including a propane extraction step before and
after vacuum distillation (Fig. 10). The extraction technology is
similar to the one carried out in crude oil refineries to separate out
asphaltenes.
In the first stage of the Snamprogetti technology, the light
hydrocarbons and water are removed by atmospheric distillation.
In the second stage, all the impurities picked up by the engine
oil, including the additives and partly degraded polymers, are
removed by extraction with propane in the temperature range
7595 C in a propane de-asphalting section (PDA I). After stripping
the propane, the oil is heated again and vacuum distilled at a
temperature of 300 C. In this stage lubricating bases having lower
viscosity and free of impurities are separated. The vacuum residue
is then heated to 300450 C under adiabatic conditions and sent
to the second extraction stage (PDA II) in which metal content
and asphaltic components are further reduced. After extraction,
propane is stripped and recycled in the process. The base oil cuts
from the vacuum residue (bright stock) are finally hydrogenated
to improve the colour and to increase the oxidation stability of the
base oils.
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Table 10. Properties of base oil products of Interline process47

Base oils
Medium grade
SN-150
Properties
Flash point, C
Pour point, C
Viscosity index
Saturates, %wt
Figure 11. Block flow diagram the Interline process adapted from
Refs 1, 21, 42.
Products from the Snamprogetti process have high quality due

to the final hydrofinishing. Moreover, the yield of the base oils is
high, approximately 7480%.12,20
Interline process
Interline Hydrocarbon INC., a Utah based company, has developed
a propane extraction process for used oils with a clay treatment.35
In 2001, Interline patented an improved extraction technology
including a pretreatment of the used oil with chemicals
and catalysts, which increased the selectivity of the propane
extraction.46
Interline proposes a process based on propane de-asphalting
at ambient temperature and under a pressure that facilitates
separation in the liquid phase. The Interline process is applied in
the following locations:
a 36 000 tons/year plant at Fuenlabrada, Spain;
a 50 000 tons/year plant at Stoke-on-Trent, United Kingdom.
1788
The Interline process is depicted in Fig. 11. The used oil is pretreated with a basic solution containing ammonium hydroxide
and/or potassium hydroxide for neutralization of undesirable
compounds. Pre-treated in this way, oil is mixed with propane,
which has a high selectivity for hydrocarbons, and then sent to the
solvent mixing and extraction vessel. Most of the additives, water
and other insoluble compounds are separated from the propanebase oil mixture. The solids and water settle to the bottom and
enter the residuewater separator where water is separated from
a tar-like material which goes to the asphalt blending tank. In this
tank, the tarlike material is blended with the vacuum distillation
residue to produce an asphalt extender-modifier product. The
water is purified and returned to the environment. The solventoil
mixture is pumped to an oilsolvent separation system. The
propane is re-condensed with cooling water and returned to the
solvent vessel. Solvent-free oil is then stripped to remove light
hydrocarbons and the remaining propane. The flash adjusted
oil is then directed to a traditional vacuum distillation column.
The distilled lubricant oil product is a base oil (Table 10), which
is classified as group I according to API Publications, although,
by saturates content (9192%) and viscosity index (>100), the
product oil could be considered in group II (Table 4).47
235
9
5.05.5
>100
>91
Heavy grade
SN-300
245
9
7.58.0
>100
>91
The lubricating oil yield declared for the Interline process

is 79%.22,48 The extraction process removes the majority of
additives. The Interline process is interesting from the economics
point of view because it eliminates thin film distillation and the
need for hydrogenation. Both investment and maintenance costs
are low.
The drawbacks of the Interline process are that the feed should
not contain polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and its chlorine
content should be below 1000 ppm, since this process has no final
hydrofinishing step.
Propak thermal cracking process
In Belgium, used oil is treated not at a rerefinery designed to
manufacture base oil but at a cracking plant operated by SITA that
manufactures, among other products, gasoil. The market for gasoil
is very large and thus selling the modest quantity output from
the plant presents no difficulties compared with those confronted
by vendors of rerefined base oils.49 The Propak technology was
developed in the United States, offered under licence by Propak
Systems Ltd, Canada. This technology was installed in Belgium by
the end of 2001 with plant capacity of 40 000 tons/year operated
by WATCO.
Propak thermal cracking technology allows production of gas
oils or fuels. A block flow diagram of the Propak process is depicted
in Fig. 12.
The Propak process consists of screening and dewatering
sections, followed by a thermal cracking section, a separation
or distillation depending on the product state desired and finally
purification and stabilization stages. The used oil is passed to
the cracking section which consists of a fired process heater and
a thermal cracking section. The product is heated and exposed
to appropriate pressure, temperature, residence time and other
conditions that favor the transformation of the used oil to gasoil
boiling range hydrocarbons. The cracking section discharges a hot
heavy residual product that concentrates ash, heavy metals and
other undesirable components.
The vaporized hot gas stream, from the thermal cracking section,
contains a mix of light hydrocarbons. The hot gas stream proceeds
to the distillation or separation stage in which the lighter boiling
range naphtha is separated from the gasoil. In certain plant
configurations, a heavy boiling fraction is recycled back to the fired
process heater. Gasoil in the liquid state is led to the stabilization
section from distillation.
Propak technology is characterized by a large operational
and product flexibility. Process operating conditions (temperature, pressure, residence time) can be varied to produce a desired product such as heavy fuel oil, gasoil or
base oil.

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Figure 13. A block flow diagram the typical solvent extraction unit adapted
from Ref. 53.
Figure 12. Block flow diagram the Propak thermal cracking process
adapted from Refs 1, 21.
BASIC PRINCIPLES OF THE LATEST

TECHNOLOGIES FOR USED OIL REREFINING
Recent studies showed that propane can be replaced by

an alcoholketone mixture, which reduces coking and fouling
problems during distillation.51,52 The solvent chosen should meet
the following requirements: maximum solubility for the oils and
minimum solubility for additives and carbonaceous matter; ability
to be recovered by distillation. New plant units increasingly use
N-methylpyrrolidone because it has the lowest toxicity and can be
used at lower solvent/oil ratios, saving energy.
Independent of the contacting method used, the end result
is two product streams. The raffinate stream is mainly extracted
oil containing a limited amount of solvent, while the extract
stream is a mixture of solvent and aromatic components. The
streams are handled separately during solvent recovery and
the recovered solvent streams are recombined and recycled within
the plant. Solvent recovery is an energy-intensive part of the
solvent extraction process.
For several years, catalytic hydrotreatment stood out as the
modem and successful refining treatment from the point of view
of the yield and quality of the finished products. Hydroprocessing is
more often applied as a final step in the rerefining process in order
to correct problems such as poor colour, oxidation or thermal
stability, demulsification and electrical insulating properties. A
simplified flow diagram of a hydrofinishing plant is shown in Fig. 14.
Oil and hydrogen are pre-heated and the oil allowed to trickle
downwards through a reactor filled with catalyst particles where
hydrogenation reactions take place. The oil product is separated
from the gaseous phase and then stripped to remove traces of
dissolved gases or water. Typical reactor operating conditions for
hydrofinishing are the following:53
catalyst temperature, 250350 C,
operating pressure, 2060 bar.
The following reactions can be operative: hydrorefining
reactions with the objective of removing heteroelements and to
hydrogenate olefinic and aromatic compounds, and hydroconversion reactions aiming at modifying the structure of hydrocarbons
by cracking and isomerization.35 Hydrotreatment catalysts are
made of an active phase constituted by molybdenum or tungsten
sulfides as well as by cobalt or nickel on oxide carriers.
Generally applied combinations are Co-Mo, Ni-Mo, and Ni-W
for the active phase and high surface area -alumina (transition

1789
Nowadays due to different treatment and finishing methods,

there are currently available many new technologies,50 such as
thin film evaporation (TFE), including combined TFE and clay
finishing, TFE and solvent finishing, TFE and hydrofinishing,
thermal de-asphalting (TDA), TDA and clay finishing, and TDA and
hydrofinishing. In addition, solvent extraction and hydrofinishing
are being developed by means of hydrofinishing after the solvent
de-asphalting process.
Thin film evaporation technology includes a rotating mechanism
inside the evaporator vessel which creates high turbulence and
thereby reduces the residence time of feed-stock oil in the
evaporator. This is done in order to reduce coking, which is caused
by cracking of the hydrocarbons due to impurities in the used oil.
Cracking starts to occur when the temperature of the feedstock oil
rises above 300 C. However, any coking which does occur will foul
the rotating mechanism and other mechanisms such as tube-type
heat exchangers are often found in thin film evaporators.
Solvent extraction processes are widely applied to remove
asphaltic and resinous components. Low molecular weight
hydrocarbons as solvents selectively dissolve the undesired
aromatic components, the extract, leaving the desirable saturated
components, especially alkanes, as a separate phase, the raffinate.
Liquid propane is by far the most frequently used solvent for
de-asphalting residues to make lubricant bright stock, whereas
liquid butane or pentane produces lower grade de-asphalted oils
more suitable for feeding to fuel-upgrading units.
The liquid propane is kept close to its critical point and, under
these conditions, raising the temperature increases selectivity. A
temperature gradient is set up in the extraction tower to facilitate separation. Solvent-to-oil ratios are kept high because this
enhances rejection of asphalt from the propane/oil phase. Countercurrent extraction takes place in a tall extraction tower, of the type
shown in Fig. 13. Typical operating conditions are the following:53
propane/ feedstock volume ratio from 510:1

pressure 2535 bar
top temperature 6080 C
bottom temperature 3040 C.
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All of the synthetic base oil compounds, such as polyalphaolefin
(PAO)/hydrocarbon oils are preserved;
The process requires relatively low pressure and temperature;
Used solvents are recyclable;
The amount of waste produced is insignificant.
Figure 14. Flow diagram of hydrofinishing unit adapted from Ref 53.
alumina) carrier. The metal content, expressed as oxides can

reach 1215 wt% for Mo and 35 wt% for Co or Ni. Co-Mo
catalysts are preferentially used for hydrodesulphurization and NiMo for hydrogenation and hydrodenitrogenation. Ni-W catalysts
are applied for low-sulphur feeds. The most-used carriers are
alumina and alumina-silica, the latter being characterized by
a higher cracking activity.35 The currently applied catalysts in
rerefining are modified in order to improve the product base
oil quality and to decrease the coke formation, however, their
composition is typically not disclosed in the open literature.
The technologies applying hydroprocesses require relatively
high investments compared with others. However, depending
on the technology adopted, the total cost might be lower than
in solvent extraction process due to the high operating costs
to make up for the solvent losses. On the other hand, solvent
extraction and chemical treatment processes do not require
catalyst regeneration. Moreover, it is not necessary to establish a
hydrogen gas supply facility in these methods which in addition
reduces a risk concerning operation safety.
COMPARISON OF APPLIED TECHNOLOGIES

The currently applied technologies can be compared in terms of
operating and capital costs, quality of feedstock and products
obtained. The technologies described can be divided into the
following groups:
High yield and quality of products independent of the feedstock

properties;
Efficient elimination of chlorides.
1 Solvent extraction process

2 Hydroprocessing
Combined processes:
3 Vacuum distillation or thin film evaporation and finishing
process (solvent extraction or chemical treatment)
4 Thin film evaporation and hydrofinishing
5 Thermal de-asphalting and hydrofinishing
6 Solvent extraction and hydrofinishing
The advantages and drawbacks of the processes currently
applied in European rerefining are summarized in Table 11. General
advantages for solvent extraction processes, such as MRD solvent
extraction and Interline processes are the following:
1790
Toxic PAH and PAN are completely eliminated;
The drawback of solvent extraction technology is the dependence of the product oil quality on the quality of the feedstock,
since this process is a physical one and does not involve any
chemical reactions with formation of the desired hydrocarbon
structures. The process leads to diminishing concentrations
of polychlorinated biphenylenes, aromatic compounds and
specifically polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which were formed
during the oil use. Thereby the solvent extraction technology
allows the production of the re-refined oil bases of the same but
not superior quality to the feedstock base oils.
The MRD process belongs to the new generation processes,
where NMP is applied as a solvent instead of propane as used
in the Interline process. NMP has a lower toxicity and a higher
selectivity to the undesired species than propane. Moreover NMP
can be used at lower solventoil ratios, saving energy, thus, the
MRD process can be more economically attractive than Interline.
The MRD process demonstrates higher yield of the product oil
of about 91% than the product yield in Interline process which
is c. 79%. The quality of MRD-product oils is slightly higher than
Interline-oils, the viscosity indexes are about 110 and 100 in MRD
and Interline processes, respectively. Since the Interline process
contains alkaline pretreatment of used oil, the amount of vegetable
and some types of synthetic oils should be eliminated due to their
instability under alkaline conditions.
Vaxon and EcoHuile (Sotulub) processes are based on the
vacuum distillation of oil cuts in thin film evaporators, which reduce
coking caused by cracking of the hydrocarbons and oil impurities
at high temperatures. Both processes apply alkaline pretreatment
of the used oils, which requires the elimination of synthetic and
vegetable oils in the feedstock. The Vaxon process has an additional
facility of solvent extraction treatment, which allows generation of
product oils with higher quality compared with Ecohuile-products.
Nevertheless, the quality of products is worse than in the above
solvent extraction processes. In order to produce high quality
base oils finishing steps should be added in these technologies,
however such revamps will increase operating and capital costs
and the processes could become less financially attractive.
Hydrofinishing processes are applied in such technologies as
Hylube, CEP, Revivoil, Snamprogetti and Cyclon processes. The
advantages of these technologies are listed below:
However, the hydroprocessing technologies have the following

drawbacks:
High pressure and temperature;

A need for hydrogen gas supply facility;
High safety standards;
High operating and capital costs;
Low operational efficiency;
A need for feedstock analysis and pretreatment;
A necessity for catalyst regeneration.
Hylube technology applying hydroprocessing allows production of high quality base oil products, in which viscosity index is

The technology guarantees the

complete preservation of the
synthetic oils (XHVI, PAO).
Feedstock can contain up to
5% of vegetable oils.
Mineral motor and industrial oils
Feedstock
Relatively low operating and

capital costs.
Investment costs
Good quality base oils:

Quantitative elimination of PAH
a high viscosity index and
oxidation stability but
high sulfur content
Low quality of produced base oil
(API I).
Product quality

1791
Cyclon process
Acceptance of all used motor oil

feedstocks.
1. Solvent extraction + hydrofinishing

Snamprogetti
feedstocks.
High operating and capital costs.
Relatively expensive due to 2 PDA

units and hydrofinishing
process
High-quality base oils.
High-quality base oils.
Solvent extraction system

operates without extensive
heat or pressure. Relatively low
operating and capital costs.
2. Vacuum distillation/ Thin film evaporation + finishing process (solvent extraction or chemical treatment)
Vaxon
Mineral motor and industrial oils
Financially attractive
Medium quality of the produced oil.
and some synthetic lube oils,
The final stage does not allow the
which are stable in the
production of high quality base
presence of strong base.
oil
EcoHuile (Sotulub)
Mineral and some synthetic lube
No finishing step required, which
Low quality base oil produced
oil, which are stable in the
decreases investment cost of
presence of alkali additive
the process
(Antipoll)
3. Hydroprocessing
Hylube
Accepts used oil from different
The capital investment and
Quite high quality of produced oil
sources.
operating costs of the process
(API II). Effective dechlorination
are minimized by eliminating
including PCBs destruction) and
superfluous equipment.
desulfurization (content in fuel is
less than 0.03 wt. %)
4. TFE + hydrofinishing
CEP process
Accepts used oil from different
High-quality base oilsAPI Group II.
sources: industrial and motor
mineral and synthetic oils.
5. TDA + hydrofinishing
Revivoil
Products quality comparable to
feedstocks.
virgin base oils. Possibility to
achieve API Group II
requirements.
Interline
1. Solvent extraction
MRD process
Technology
Table 11. Overview of the rerefining processs currently applied in Europe
Residueasphalt extender.
Finishing process can be
chemical treatment or solvent
extraction
6570
Residue - used as asphalt

extender and in bituminous
membranes. Used
hydrotreatment catalyst regenerated and re-used in
the process.
72
72
PDA bottoms - used in asphalt

production. Losses of
propane in the process about
510%.
Light hydrocarbon fuel - used as
fuel in oil heaters on the plant
or in boilers.
Used catalyst of
hydropurification - disposed
off-site.
70
7480
Heavy residue - is very stable

and is acceptable for asphalt
blending
85
8292
Production of asphalt modifier.
Extractscan be used as fuel.
Comments
79
91
Oil yield, %

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higher than 110 and sulfur content is less than 100 ppm. The process feedstock is oils from different sources, however, a key factor
in maintaining stable Hylube catalyst activity is minimization of
the inorganic contaminants level in the reactor feed. Thus, careful
monitoring of the used oil for known catalyst poisons such as
arsenic and silicon is needed, moreover, some synthetic oils that
are unstable in hydroprocessing conditions should be eliminated.
The high quality of the products obtained is compensated by
relatively high capital investment and operating costs.
The CEP process, which is a combination of TFE and hydrofininshing step, produces high quality product oils comparable with
Hylube-products. Since this process applies caustic pretreatment
of the used oil, the amount of vegetable oils and some types of
synthetic oils should be eliminated. Off-site catalyst regeneration
causes an increase in the operating and capital costs.
The Revivoil process accepts all type of used oils. Thermal deasphalting combined with hydrofinishing allows generation of
high quality products with a yield of about 72%. The advantage of
this technology is regeneration of the used catalysts.
The advantage of processes applying solvent extraction
combined with hydrofinishing (Snamprogetti and Cyclon) is its
acceptance of all types of used oil. Similar to all technologies
applying hydroprocessing the product oil quality is high with
yields of c. 7280. Drawbacks are high operating and capital costs,
since both technologies use propane, which belongs to the old
generation of solvents. Propane requires high solventoil ratios,
which increases energy consumption; moreover losses of propane
in the Snamprogetti process are about 510%.
In terms of the qualities of the feedstock required to obtain the
desired product, high quality base oils API Group II/II+ can be
obtained by solvent extraction methods only when the reaction
mixture is homogeneous. Therefore the quality of the base oil
produced with this technology is directly related to the quality
of feedstock, while hydrofinishing technology allows base oil API
Group II to be obtained independently of the quality of the
feedstock. The major drawback of hydroprocessing is the catalyst
sensitivity and poisoning; in this regard feedstock pretreatment is
necessary to prevent catalyst deactivation. However, technologies
applying alkali treating agents (CEP, Vaxon, Ecohuile and Interline)
cannot be used for rerefining vegetable and some types of
synthetic oils. Thus, the yield and selection of the operation
conditions are strongly dependent on the composition and
properties of the feedstock.
CONCLUSIONS
1792
The lube oil consumption in Western Europe accounts for 13% of

the total worldwide consumption, which is about 5.7 million tons
annually. According to GEIR sources,8 about 2.7 million tons/year
of waste oil are generated as a result of lube oil usage. Europe is the
leader in waste oil recycling; the total European rerefining industry
has a theoretical nameplate capacity of 1.3 million tons. The real
annual waste oil treatment accounts for 0.7 million tons/year,
whereas worldwide overall capacity is 1.8 million tons/year.
Today the European waste oil recycling industry is comprised
of 28 plants. Seventeen of them produce base oils with yield
higher than 70%. Under increasing environmental pressure acidclay treatment, which was the first oil regeneration process used,
was substituted in the majority of European countries with new
technologies based on solvent extraction and hydroprocessing.
Leading industrial processes employ different technologies, such
as combined thermal de-asphalting and hydrofinishing (Revivoil),

solvent extraction (MRD process, Interline), solvent extraction
and hydrofinishing (Cyclon, Snamprogetti), thin film evaporation
and different finishing process (Ecohuile, Vaxon, CEP) and
hydroprocessing (Hylube).
The technologies applying hydroprocessing obtain product oils
with the highest quality independently of the quality of feedstock.
Thus technologies such as Hylube, CEP, Revivoil, Snamprogetti
and Cyclon produce high-quality base oils, which fulfill the API
Group II and even II+ requirements. In terms of the nature of the
feedstock, some synthetic oils which have enhanced performance
characteristics and currently are replacing conventional mineral
lube oils, can be regenerated along with mineral oils. Others (based
on esters for instance) are less suitable for regeneration because
they tend to be less stable to the hydrofinishing step. Moreover,
these processes require high operating and capital costs. Catalyst
poisoning is also one of the drawbacks of hydroprocessing. In
this regard feedstock should be carefully monitored to estimate
catalyst poisons and thereafter the feedstock should be pretreated
to prevent catalyst deactivation. The alkaline pretreatment of used
oils is a commonly used process, however, taking into account
a trend towards more synthetic or semi-synthetic compounds
in lubricants, the use of alkali agents can cause problems during
rerefining some types of synthetic oils (based on esters for instance)
which tend to be less stable in the presence of alkali agents.
Thus, technology applying alkali treating agents (CEP, Vaxon,
Ecohuile and Interline) cannot accept vegetable and some types
of synthetic oils for rerefining, whereas technologies applying
solvent extraction are independent of the feedstock nature and can
process used oils from different sources. The drawback of solvent
extraction is dependence of the product quality on hydrocarbon
feedstock composition. The high quality base oils API Group
II/II+ can be obtained by solvent extraction methods only when
the reaction mixture is homogeneous. The majority of current
solvent extraction technologies (Interline, Snamprogetti, Cyclon)
use propane as a solvent, which has a lower selectivity to undesired
species compared with MRD. Moreover propane requires high
solventoil ratios which increase energy consumption. From
economical and technological points of view replacing propane
with MRD looks feasible.
Thus, currently the most attractive method for rerefining
used oil could be a combination of MRD-solvent extraction and
hydrofinishing, since application of the hydrofinishing step gives
product oils of high quality independent of the feedstock nature.
The MRD-solvent extraction process allows reduced catalyst
poisoning without any alkaline treatment of the used oil. Absence
of a need to apply alkali agents makes it possible to regenerate
synthetic and semi-synthetic oils along with mineral oils. The
composition of hydroprocessing catalysts could be optimized to
increase catalyst stability and achieve the highest oil conversion
and yield.
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Review

Received: 4 February 2013

Revised: 28 May 2013

Accepted article published: 7 June 2013

Published online in Wiley Online Library: 5 July 2013

(wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI 10.1002/jctb.4137

Technology for rerefining used lube oils

Antonina Kupareva, Paivi

Nowadays, there are a vast number of applications using lube

regions.1 4 Due to high lube oil consumption various countries

Correspondence to: Paivi Maki-Arvela, Abo

c 2013 Society of Chemical Industry

Technology for rerefining used lube oils applied in Europe

base oil + by-products

base oil + by-products

base oil + by-products

in the environment. Engine oil represents more than 70% of the

J Chem Technol Biotechnol 2013; 88: 17801793

Figure 1. Flow diagram of the typical used oil rerefining process.

c 2013 Society of Chemical Industry

Due to the increasing necessity for environmental protection

A Kupareva, P Maki-Arvela, DY Murzin

Table 2. Typical composition of lubricating oils18

rust, protecting against wear and removing contaminants from the

without creating environmental problems. Table 3 demonstrates

DESCRIPTION OF DIFFERENT REREFINING

Table 4. API base oil categories

Table 3. Properties of used oils, intermediate products during rerefining15,19

Feed of vacuum distillation

c 2013 Society of Chemical Industry

J Chem Technol Biotechnol 2013; 88: 17801793

Technology for rerefining used lube oils applied in Europe

Figure 2. Block flow diagram of the acid-clay rerefining process adapted

impurities such as colloids, organic acids and waxy substances are

J Chem Technol Biotechnol 2013; 88: 17801793

The treated feed is hydrogenated in the main reactor before the

Table 5. Properties of base oil products of Hylube-process15

Light grade Medium grade Heavy grade

*Here and below Saybolt viscosities.

c 2013 Society of Chemical Industry

Figure 3. Block flow diagram of the Hylube process adapted from

A Kupareva, P Maki-Arvela, DY Murzin

Table 6. Properties of base oil products of MRD Solvent extraction

c 2013 Society of Chemical Industry

J Chem Technol Biotechnol 2013; 88: 17801793

Technology for rerefining used lube oils applied in Europe

Figure 6. Block flow diagram of the CEP process adapted from

J Chem Technol Biotechnol 2013; 88: 17801793

c 2013 Society of Chemical Industry

Used oil is chemically treated with alkali-hydroxides (sodium

Europe. Germany-based Avista has three rerefiniries in Europe,

A Kupareva, P Maki-Arvela, DY Murzin

Table 7. Properties of base oil products of CEP process34

Medium grade (Base oil - N150)

The Sotulub proces37 is based on treatment of the used oil

Table 8. Properties of base oil products of Ecohuile process36

c 2013 Society of Chemical Industry

J Chem Technol Biotechnol 2013; 88: 17801793

Technology for rerefining used lube oils applied in Europe

Table 9. Properties of base oil products of Revivoil process43

and saturated compounds fulfil the API Group II requirements

Figure 8. Flow diagram of the Cyclon process block adapted from

Figure 9. Block flow diagram of the Revivoil process adapted from