What Happens When Oil Is Collected?
Posted on: 30 July 2020
Waste oil collection is an important part of any country's strategy to reduce its carbon footprint and to make a contribution to bringing down rising global temperatures. This is certainly the case in Australia where waste oil collection is mandatory in certain sectors before recycling processes can begin. For example, all of the oil should be collected from a vehicle before its metal is extracted for its scrap value. That said, several processes need to go on following a successful waste oil collection before it can be reused. What are they?
Products Containing Recyclable Oil
To begin with, consumers need to be able to identify any products they have which contain the sort of oils that can be reprocessed. These include hydraulic oils used in industrial rams and certain types of agricultural machinery, for example. Waste oil collection should also be conducted when bitumen-based products have reached the end of their working lives. Additionally, used lubricants and industrial burner oils should all be collected.
Local Collection Facilities and Pre-Treatment
Most states in Australia have local collection facilities where you can take used oils to. In some rural areas, a mobile waste oil collection service will come to businesses where oil is regularly used. Either way, the initial job will be to combine similar types of oils for pre-treatment processes. In the main, this will mean de-watering the oil. Commonly, local collection centres will simply allow the oil to sit in tanks where any water that is mixed in will settle underneath. This is then pumped out until only the collected waste oil remains.
Filtering and Distillation
Once it as been de-watered, waste oil will be sent to a specialist reprocessing plant. Large vats of oil will be filtered to try and remove as many solid particles from it as possible. This is done by pouring it through large sieves that trap contaminants as the oil passes through them. In many cases, minerals will have built up in the oil and these can be either broken down or removed during this process, too.
After that, a process of distillation will occur, which means that all of the collected oil becomes more refined. This is not dissimilar to the sorts of refining processes that crude oil goes through. The aim is to fashion a higher quality oil that can be used as a lubricant rather than simply burnt as a fuel. The higher the grade the recycled oil ends up being, the more likely it will go through the waste oil collection process once more for when it finally reaches the end of its useful life.
Reach out to a professional who provides waste oil collection services for more information.
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