Veolia Environnement and Total inaugurated their 55 million (U.S. $72.5 million) Osilub joint venture rerefinery in Normandy, France on Friday, which has the capacity to process 120,000 metric tons of used oil per year.
The new plant in Gonfreville lOrcher was constructed over the course of 20 months, according to a news release. Company officials said the plant has the capacity to bring in almost half of Frances used oil, and that up to 75 percent of its intake will yield rerefined base oil.
Veolia Environmental Services and the lubricants division of Total came together in 2006 to form Osilub, a joint venture focused on sustainable used oil recycling. The new facility meets the recycling priorities set by the European Unions sustainable development targets, according to the statement.
The Osilub plant will implement a new scraped film vacuum distillation process developed by Veolia and designed to preserve the integrity of oil molecules, the statement explained. According to Veolias website, as the oil passes through a series of treatment stages, scraped film distillation sorts reusable components, removing foreign or contaminated elements. The base oil produced by the Osilub plant will be treated in specific units, including the Normandy refinery, the companies stated in Fridays news release, so it can be used in high-grade motor oils that meet the most recent specifications.
Neither company answered Lube Reports questions regarding which base oil grades the project will produce, how much annual product quantity the plant expects, and whether the output will be used internally or by merchant markets.
The project is slated to increase treatment capacity of used oil and production of finished lubricants and engine oils not just in France, but also throughout northwestern Europe. Veolias Chairman and CEO Antoine Frrot said the new project will strengthen the presence of both companies in northern France. The choice of [location] was not down to chance; it reflects our deep commitment to the industrial sector in this region where we have invested almost 90 million in five years, Frrot said in the statement.
Totals President Marketing & Services and President New Energies Philippe Boisseau expounded on its location choice. The group already owns numerous facilities in this region and invests heavily there: especially at the Normandy platform, which includes a refinery and a benchmark petrochemicals plant.
Total also has a research and technology center and a container production plant in Gonfreville, a special fluids plant in Oudalle, two lubricant manufacturing plants in Rouen and Nourrey-en-Bessin, and a lubricants logistics facility in Rouen.
Veolia Environnement is an environmental services company headquartered in Paris with over 220,000 employees throughout locations on six continents.Total, based in Courbevoie, France, is an oil, gas, and chemical company with 97,000 employees in more than 130,000 countries.