The oil industry was perhaps among the first to tackle issues of health and safety by adopting production processes that limited exposure to the harmful chemicals and elements produced when crude oil is refined into its various components. The lubricants sector, while proficient at producing base stocks and finished lubricants, did not take into account how to handle the waste material left when a lubricants life was exhausted. And, of course, the emphasis of oil companies worldwide was solely on profitably marketing and selling more and more of the primary material to the consumer.

Until recently – like the past few decades – the answer was for used oils to be collected and incinerated, either on their own or more often as a fuel oil diluent. This move to collection and disposal was at least an acknowledgement that waste oils should not be disposed of in communal dumps, buried underground or even decanted into water courses. Waste oils contain much more than just the remnants of lubricants, with marked traces of gasoline, diesel oil and bitumen substances, all of which when burned produce a high number of carcinogens that historically were amply distributed around the environment.

A number of industry converts and environmentalists emerged with waste-handling ideas that evolved during the middle of the twentieth century. These concepts were the forerunners to modern day recycling and reprocessing of used lubricating oils in one form or another. Identified were high-end filtration units and chemical treatments. These ultimately led to reprocessing or rerefining waste oils to produce base oils that could be reused in the formulations of certain types of finished lubricants

One such enterprise was initiated during 2005 when Whelan Refining Ltd. (WRL) was launched. John Whelan had a background and detailed knowledge of the waste management business He launched the operation in Stoke-on-Trent in the Midlands of the U.K. where he had been involved in various waste projects for some years.

The area known as the Potteries is more commonly associated with famous names such as Josiah Wedgewood and Royal Doulton who have been producing fine china and ceramics for many years. This location, being central and close to many of the large industrial and manufacturing sites in the North and Midlands of Britain, was ideally suited to becoming the only waste oil to base oil refining plant in the U.K.

The year 2007 saw production commence at the site; it currently runs at around 40,000 metric tons per year, with the refinery operating 24 hours per day, 7 days a week. The refinery employs thirty people, performing activities from lab to office to yard. Whelan defined the unit’s purpose as producing refined base oil that could be resold to the lubricating oil blending industry and also to other process oil users.

The operation produces around 25,000 t/y of the mainstay SN 150 base oil. Due to the presence of other hydrocarbon elements, the facility also produces gasoline, diesel and a bitumen extender, thus utilizing and optimizing the total content of the waste material gathered from many locations throughout the U.K.

Technically, the refinery employs a three-stage distillation process followed by a polishing step, producing a material classified as SN 150 viscosity base oil, with a color of maximum 3 and that is also clear and bright. The base stock has a high viscosity index due to the proliferation of Group II and Group III quality base oils in the waste oils gathered. The VI can be tweaked for individual customer requirements, along with the possibility to cut lighter or heavier viscosity ranges should these be required for specific functions.

The markets for WRLs output are wide and varied, with material going into receivers in regions such as East, South and West Africa, along with more conventional sales into Continental Europe and the Middle East. Shipments are loaded into trucks, ISO-tanks, or flexitanks, and with more than a dozen regular buyers located in the UK, pressure is continually on the operation to produce further quantities of base oil.

Economics suggest that the production of base stocks from waste oils consumes only around 25 percent of the energy required to produce virgin base oils. Therefore, this product can provide considerable price savings vs. conventional base stocks, typically between 10 and 15 percent.

With demand growing and environmental pressure mounting to increase the reprocessing of waste materials, WRL has decided to make a major capital investment during 2016-2017, with an aim to improving quality and increasing throughput by around 20 percent. Armed with these commitments and resource, WRL looks set to expand operations and set new standards in waste management and rerefining of base oils, both within the U.K. and internationally. Perhaps the Whelan name will one day be recognized alongside the names of Wedgewood and Doulton.