Used oil recycler Baufeld shut down its Duisburg, Germany, rerefinery last month in conjunction with an expansion by parent company Puralube. The combination of those developments raised the quality of base stocks produced by the combined companies, although the overall capacity actually decreased.
As previously reported inLube Report, Puralube opened a second rerefinery at its Troeglitz, Germany, site in January. That plant has capacity to make 70,000 metric tons per year of rerefined Group II oils, doubling the capacity at Troeglitz.
Puralube Geneal Manager Christian Hartmann told Lube Report last week that feedstock for the new plant is used oil that is collected by Baufeld and processed at Baufelds Duisburg plant. Since it no longer had feedstock for Duisburg, Puralube shut it down around the beginning of March.
When you start a [rerefinery], you obviously need to have an existing supply of feedstock, Hartmann said.
The Puralube plants make Group II oils using the Hylube process and catalyst, which were developed by UOP. The Duisburg plant used older technology and had capacity to make 80,000 t/y of Group I oils. Baufeld has collected used oil for 25 years and was purchased by Puralube in 2002. At one time it also operated a second rerefinery in Chemnitz, Germany, but that facilityclosed three years ago.