Base Oil Refining

Producing about two litres of usable oil from a litre of waste oil does not require pulling crude out of the ground. Refining is the job of separating additive residue, soot, water and light hydrocarbons, leaving usable base oil behind.

Line stages

Pre-settling. Incoming oil rests in tanks; heavy sediment and free water collect at the bottom.

Dewatering. Controlled heating removes most of the water and light volatiles. Skipping this stage causes foaming and yield loss in the distillation column.

Vacuum distillation. Reduced pressure lowers the boiling point so the oil separates into fractions without thermal degradation. Output is collected by viscosity grade.

Treatment and decolourising. Clay or a similar adsorbent captures remaining polar compounds; colour and odour improve.

Analysis. Viscosity, flash point, water content and total acid number are measured. Results are attached to the shipping document.

Where the output is used

Recovered base oil goes into blended lubricants, mould oil, chain oil and industrial lubrication. The application depends on the viscosity grade of the fraction and the analysis result.