More than 80% of used oil in South Africa is not properly recycled for re-introduction into sectors such as the supply chain industry, says “Recycling Oil Saves the Environment”, the lubricants watchdog officially known as the Rose Foundation.Its CEO, Bubele Nyiba, told FTW that in “South Africa less than 25% of used oil is re-refined to base oil with most being used as heating fuel”.Elsewhere the trend is to ‘address the slick’ that oil leaves behind once it’s been used by efficiently extending its lifespan.In Europe for example, the EU’s Waste Directive strongly favours re-refining over burning for energy recovery, and as a result, it is thought that re-refined base oils could meet nearly a quarter of Europe’s base oil demand, says the foundation.It’s a green earth achievement that could be reached sometime this year, but in South Africa there’s a major impediment for the lubricants industry to equal this effort – cost.Says Nyiba: “The international trend of refining the majority of used oil back to base oil is exciting, but premature for a developing country like South Africa because of the prohibitive cost of the technology and developing the necessary processes.”For the most part it’s the process that causes costs to balloon, in which case it’s important to distinguish between recycling and refining, Nyiba points out.“Recycling used oil generally means to take used motor oil and use it for a different purpose, most commonly to be burnt a s f uel.”Recycling or reconditioning oil could also mean “using commercial f iltration systems to remove insoluble impur it ies”, Nyiba adds.However, “it does not remove any of the soluble contaminants” and reconditioning usually results in oil that is “generally used for fuel and is only good for one-time use. “Reconditioned oil is also not suitable for use in vehicles.”In comparison, “re-refining oil removes all impurities, both soluble and insoluble, and returns the oil to a quality suitable for use in vehicles”.Nyiba emphasises that the quality of re-refined oil can be so good it is “better than some virgin base oils and motors oils”.Moreover, re-refined oil, once used, can be re-refined many times over.Unfortunately there are no shortcuts in the process, a complicated business that involves water removal during pre-treatment, demulsifying where necessary, filtration and demineralising to remove free agents such as solids and organic material, dilution, possibly cutting it with light petroleum, propane de-asphalting, distillation, and the blending of additives to produce final products with the right detergent and anti-friction qualities.Once complete, three different grades of re-refined oil are produced: light, low and high viscosity lubricants that are generally referred to as re-refined base oil.Unfortunately, whereas there are several large European refineries where used oil is re-refined, “very few processors in South Africa have the capacity to re-refine back-to-base oil”, Nyiba says.One exception is FFS Refiners, where significant investment in the right type of equipment “enables them to produce a very high quality of re-refined oil that meets and exceeds international standards”.• Look at out for our special feature, “Greening the Supply Chain”, in FTW on 3 April.