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البحـث الثاني
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2016
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ص لبحوث العلمية الفائزة بجائزة
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عدد خا
مجلة النفط والتعاون العربي
161
العدد
- 2017
أربعون
المجلد الثالث و ال
Re-refining of Used Lubricating Oil and its Economic and Environmental Implications
54
scale and the economics of the operation
.
On a broader level, the re-refining process is
impacted by the price of crude oil, the country regulations concerning the handling of
used lube oil and the tax policy on recycled lubricating oils. The re-refining industry has
quite often experienced business cycle upturns and downturns as a direct consequence
of being subjected to fluctuations in the crude oil prices. The 1973 OPEC oil embargo
led to a tripling of crude oil prices, stimulating interest in used oil recycling (Ray, 2014).
OPEC oversupply in 1986 led to crude oil prices collapse with a correspondingly
marked decline in the selling price of re-refined base oils (Fuchs, 2010). Currently the oil
prices have reached record lows and if the past is any indication of the future, clearly
the re-refining industry will be in very challenging times. This being said, in this section
we will discuss key parameters which we feel to be important to take into account in
assessing the economic viability of a re-refining process.
7.1.1 Operating costs
Operating costs are comprised of variable costs and fixed costs. The variable costs
depend mainly on feedstock cost, utility costs, and catalysts & consumable costs. It can
be seen from Figure 30 that the fixed costs represent more than 50 % of total operating
costs, regardless of the technology. Should the production drop, the operating cost per
ton will increase. As a result, the re-refiner experiences a period of increasing costs and
at the same time stable or decreasing base oil prices. This is the so-called cost-price
squeeze. In order to limit the effect of the cost-price squeeze, it is important for the re-
refiner to operate at or near full capacity. This explains why it is so important to secure
feedstock availability. When the feedstock is made available at sufficient quantities and
at a reasonable cost, the economic viability of re-refining can be achieved.
7.1.1.1
Feedstock cost and availability
Control over the used oil supply chain is a key success factor to economic viability of
the operation depending itself not only on the availability of the waste oil in substantial
amounts but on the existence of an efficient collecting system. Ultimately, the collecting
system will influence the cost of used oil because this latter is practically equal to the
cost of collection and transportation to the site. Economically, the feedstock cost
depends on alternative applications. In other words, the value at which the feedstock is
valued depends on the opportunity cost depending itself, in the case of used lube oils,
on the cost offered by the used oil burners. By securing the feedstock, the re-refiner can
afford to operate at or near capacity. This is not something self-evident as, in many