AUSTRALIAN LUBE OIL RECYCLING PLANT

The Australian Government’s drive to recycling waste was furthered with the establishment of Transpacific Refiners (TPR), a joint venture company between FFS and Transpacific Industries (TPI), to recycle used lubrication oil.

FFS supplied the hydrogenation technology and designed and built the plant to receive the pre-treated used lube oil from Nationwide Oils, a subsidiary of TPI.

The first of several planned plants was commissioned in August 2007 in Rutherford NSW. The plant was designed to produce 36 million litres a year of recycled base oil. The product produced is a stable SN150 base oil of good colour, suitable for reuse in lubricating oils. The plant was designed and built by FFS. The equipment, vessels and piping were fabricated in their Durban workshops and then shipped to Australia for assembly on site.

The process consists of two fixed-bed high temperature and high pressure hydrogenation reactors followed by a vacuum stripper and a flash point correction column. The losses are low at less than 5%. The quality of the product meets base oil SN 150 specification at an ASTM colour of <1.5 and less than 10ppm total metals.

The plant is subject to very strict environmental emission constraints. FFS managing director Don Hunter says the plant in Australia is up and running with all product sold out. This is a good initiative with considerable environmental benefit. There is also considerable scope for further expansion as the technology can be applied in most developed countries. He says FFS has been extremely busy expanding its technology, product range and geographic footprint.