Issue 161-M

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البحـث الأول
مجلة النفط والتعاون العربي
161 العدد - 2017 أربعونالمجلد الثالث و ال
2016 أوابك العلمية لعام� ص لبحوث العلمية الفائزة بجائزة� عدد خا
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The disposed oil of the collected is reported to have declined from 0.426 billion
gallons in 1995 to 0.348 billion gallon in 20021, a positive result of tightened
regulations.
Table (9)
US Lube Oils Disposition - 1995
Billion
Gallons
Million
tons
Consumption 2.5 8.32
Generated Used Oil 1.371 4.56
Collected Used oil 0.945 3.14
Burned for Energy 0.784 2.61
Re-refined 0.161 0.53
Disposed 0.426 1.4
Source: (1) & (3) – Based on DOE 2006 Study
& author adaptation.
It is clear that the US situation is more inclined on burning used oil which
constitutes 83% of the collected oil and only 17% is left to re-refining. There is a
potential of over one million tons a year for either application to avoid dumping
in landfills and the environment.
However, the appreciation of crude oil prices after 2002 hence those of base oils,
encouraged the expansion of the re-refining industry in North America where in
2012 re-refining capacity was just less than 800 thousand tons a year according
to the consultants Kline37. The same source continues to say that by 2017, if all
new capacities come on stream, North America's re-refining capacity is expected
to reach more than 1.2 million tons a year. However, the decline of crude oil
prices since June 2014 may have put this program on hold as no new plants are
reported.
In the World
It is unfortunate that the statistics for other regions of the world are fragmented
and very hard to find. But the world lube oil disposition is analysed in the famous
Kline Report3 of 2009 and its disposition is shown in Table (10).
The report says that 5.9 million tons could not be collected and nothing is known
about its use3. Also of the collected used oil there is one million ton that is
disposed. The total disposed used oil is therefore in the order of 6.9 million tons
in 2009.
Similar to the trend in Europe and the US, the used oil for energy recovery is
dominant at 12.9 million tons in contrast to 2.6 million tons re-refined. In the
following Table (11), the world, US and EU numbers are used to generate an