Seventy-two percent of waste oil generated in Spain is refined into base stocks, according to a recent annual progress report by Sigaus, a non-profit organization that manages the countrys recycling of used lubricants.

Madrid-based Sigaus reported that figure – amounting to 100,321 metric tons – exceeded the 65 percent minimum mandated by Spanish law. The organization claimed that the base stocks produced by those rerefining operations were used to make more than 66,000 tons of new finished lubricants.

According to the associations data, that is a slight improvement from 2017, when the country rerefined 93,841 of the 131,900 tons collected, or 71 percent. The national record of 78 percent was in 2015. The lowest rate since adoption of current rules was 65 percent in 2013. The oil is collected from more than 69,000 establishments by more than 150 management companies.

Sigaus is charged with managing a program called the Collective System of Extended Producer Responsibility, aimed at ensuring that waste oil rerefining remains financially viable. It does so by paying subsidies to used oil collectors and rerefiners. The funds come from a tax of 0.06 per kilogram charged by engine oil fillers.

The organization raises or lowers its subsidies each quarter based on fluctuations in prices for base oils and waste oil. Back in May 2019, Sigaus announced it raised its subsidy by 17 percent during the second quarter to offset falling base oil prices.

Meanwhile at the other end of the Mediterranean, a Turkish waste oil collector called Tayras announced that it is building a Group II rerefinery with enough capacity to process 20 percent of the used lubricants that the country generates. The company claims it will be the countrys first rerefinery.

In a letter to Europes waste oil rerefining industry association, GEIR, Tayras said the facility, currently under construction in Bilecik, some 120 kilometers from the outskirts of Istanbul, will be operational in October 2020 and will have capacity to process 60,000 tons per year of waste oil.

Tayras CEO Mehmet Afsin told LubesnGreases that the project will make 42,000 t/y of Group II and that its price tag is U.S. $38 million. Turkey generates around 300,000 t/y of waste oil, according to Afsin.

Afsin said the facility will use the most current multiple distillation and hydroprocessing technology. In addition to automated waste oil receiving, storage and refining units, it will include a 280 square meter research and development lab accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 specification. Hydrogen used by the plant will be made from natural gas using steam methane reformer technology. All gases and waste are processed in a thermal oxidizer via a closed system that eliminates emissions, Afsin said.

Although Turkey covers an area of over 783,562 square kilometers, Afsin said that half of the countrys lubricants are consumed in the densely populated northwest of the country, including the biggest city, Istanbul, which has an estimated 20 million people. The rerefinery will be located next to a railway and will lean on Turkeys train system for waste oil transportation.

In the statement, the company said Turkeys waste oil legislation is in line with European Unions Waste Directive, which encourages members to recycle used lubricants and which gives preference to processing them into base oils rather than industrial fuel. Tayras said most waste oil in Turkey is currently used as fuel in cement factories or as a supplement to diesel.