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SORRe-refining Process

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Re-refining Used Lubricating Oil

More than 500 million litres of Lubricating Oil is sold in Australia each year

and at least 230 million litres is collected for recycling and reuse.

Used Oil becomes unfit for further use because of accumulating

contaminants and the loss of performance from oil additives.

Re-refining and energy recovery by burning at high temperatures arerecognised as methods of disposal that are environmentally acceptable.

Using re-refined oil helps reduce the depletion of the worlds oil reserves.

Re-refining oil supports the growing trend towards responsible recycling.

Southern Oil Refineries Pty Ltd re-refines Used Lubrication Oils into

Lubrication Base Oils and Fuel Oils.

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Used Oil Product Stewardship

The objectives of the Used Oil Product Stewardship program are to:

Ensure the environmentally sustainable management, re-refining and reuse

of used oil by supporting economic recycling options through product

stewardship arrangements in partnership with oil producers and recyclers

Ensure that oil producers progressively assume the costs of product

stewardship and environmentally sustainable practices for used oil.

Increase the recovery rate of waste thus avoiding environmentally damaging

disposal of used oil. Ensure the products manufactured from waste oil meet the relevant

Commonwealth health and environmental standards.

Levy and subsidy schemes have been developed whereby all new lube

products are levied to create a pool of funds to be applied to collection and

reprocessing costs. Benefits are paid to used oil recyclers in proportion to the volume and quality

of materials they recycle to the market.

Southern Oil Refineries is the first and currently the only company in Australia

to produce a fully re-refined (lube to lube) base oils.

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benefit claimedby Recyclersaftersale

lost used oil

(waste oil)

Users:purchase

products for use

PSO levy

(excise)

Lubricant

Importer

LubricantProducers

(domestic)

*

Product Stewardship Program

Recyclers:Products for sale

oil enters

the market

recovered

used oil

*

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Used Oil Collection

Collecting used oil removes used, spent or unwanted contaminants

eliminating the chance of environmental damage.

This is the first step in the process of producing lube oil products from

Southern Oil with equivalent or better specifications than original virgin

lube oils.

Used Oil is stored by workshops, industrial sites and collection stations

throughout Australia.

Contractors collect the oil and store it to be sampled and tested to make

sure it is suitable for re-refining.

It is transported by road tankers to Southern Oils Refinery at Wagga

Wagga NSW.

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Contaminants

Southern Oils re-refining process is based on the fact that molecules inlubricating oils are very stable. The base oil doesnt lose its molecular

structure or lubricating properties after prolonged use.

Its effectiveness as a lubricant in vehicles and machinery reduces with

time, because additives degrade and contaminants build up.

The chemical additives which are blended with the base oil to give special

performance characteristics are gradually exhausted.

By removing the contaminants through re-refining and replenishing the

additives, the lubricants from re-refined oils regain the sameperformance characteristics as the original lubricant.

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Composition of Used Oil BASE OILThe main component of Lube Oil. It does not wear out, but

simply becomes dirty.

DEPLETED ADDITIVES The additives in the lube oil lose their performancecharacteristics.

The main contaminants are:-

WATER - Fuel burns to CO2and H2O. When an engine is cold the water

created can pass through to the lube oil. FUEL Unburnt petrol / diesel passes through to the lube oil during

engine start-ups.

CARBON Forms as a result of incomplete combustion when an engine iswarming up and passes through to the lube oil.

DUST Small particles pass into the engine through the air breather.

METALS Due to normal engine component wear.

OXIDATION PRODUCTS Additive chemicals at elevated temperatures inthe presence of oxygen can oxidise forming corrosive acids.

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Used Oil Reception

On arrival at the refinery the road tanker with 44,000 litres of used oil is tested

for flash and chlorine to ensure there is not a high content of flammable fuel

or solvents in the load.The Used Oil load is rejected if these tests fail.

The road tanker is unloaded as soon as the flash test is passed.

The Used Oil is continuously sampled as it is pumped from the road tanker tothe Guard Tanks where it is quarantined for analysis to ensure the load

meets SORs supply specifications such as for viscosity and water content.

After passing analysis the Used Oil is accepted and pumped to the Used Oil

Refinery Feed Tanks.

If the analysis fails to meet the required specifications, the load is pumpedfrom the Guard Tank and returned to the supplier for disposal.

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Used Oil Reception

Used Oil

INITIAL SAMPLE

FOR FLASH

TEST PRIOR TO

UNLOADING

CONTINUOUS

SAMPLE FOR

INTAKE

SPECIFICATIONS

Guard

Tanks Used Oil

Feed Tanks

QUARANTINE

TANKSUSED OIL

STORAGE

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Refinery Production Yields

Light Fuel Oil ~5% 3,000 litres / day (naphtha

and petrol diluents)

Gas Oil ~10% 6,500 litres / day (dieseldiluents)

Light Lube Distillate ~37% 24,000 litres / day

Heavy Lube Distillate ~16% 10,500 litres / day

Residue ~20% 13,000 litres / day

Water ~10% 6,500 litres / day

Heavy Fuel Oil ~2% 1,500 litres / day

Used Oil

Daily Capacity

~ 65,000 litres / day

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Dewatering & Evaporation Sections The used oil feed at a rate of approx. 65,000 litres / day is pretreated with

caustic to reduce process fouling and help lower the acidity of the offgas.

The Used Oil is heated in the Dewatering Vessel. Water and Light Fuel Oilare distilled from the Dewatering Vessel, condensed and then separated.

The Light Fuel Oil is pumped to storage and sold as a furnace fuel.

The remaining defueled dry oil is directly fed to the Pre-flash Evaporatorwhere it is heated under a vacuum.

The Gas Oil and the first cut of the Lube Distillate fractions are evaporated inthe Pre-flash Vessel, condensed and fed directly to the Fractionation Column.

The remaining Lube Distillate and Residue fractions in the Pre-flash Vesselare fed to the Wiped Film Evaporator which are heated, also under a vacuum.

The second cut of the Lube Distillate is evaporated in the Wiped FilmEvaporator, condensed and joins the first cut as Distillate Feed to theFractionation column.

The remaining Residue from the Wiped Film Evaporator is pumped to storageand used offsite as kiln fuel.

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CausticTreatment

Wiped Film

Evaporator

(vacuum)

Pre-flash

Evaporator

(vacuum)

Dewatering

USED OIL

FEED

CAUSTIC

INJECTION

EVAPORATOR

FRACTIONATOR

FEED

RESIDUE TO

STORAGE

(DISPOSAL)

WATER ~ 5% & OFF GAS

(INCINERATED)

LIGHT FUEL OIL ~ 5%

TO STORAGE (SALES)

Dewatering & Evaporation Sections

FEED

OFF GAS

(INCINIRATED

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Fractionation & Solvent Extraction

SectionsThe combined Distillates from the Evaporators are fed directly to the Fractionation

Column where they are separated into four fractions by vacuum distillation at

temperatures from 20oC to 300oC. The produced fractions are Gas Oil, Light Lube

Distillate, Heavy Lube Distillate and Heavy Fuel Oil. The Gas Oil and Heavy Fuel

are pumped to storage and sold as furnace fuels. The Light and Heavy Lube

Distillates are pumped to intermediate storage as feed supply for Solvent ExtractionTreatment.

The Light and Heavy Lube Distillates are individually fed to the Solvent ExtractionColumn where they counter flow with Solvent (NMP) which removes the last ofcontaminants (Extract) I.e. coloured, odorous, and polar components. This isnecessary to meet Product Stewardship regulations which require the Re-refined

Lube Base Oil specifications to be equivalent to Virgin Lube Base Oils.The solvent treated Lube Distillate requires further processing to recover entrainedsolvent before pumping to storage to be sold as Lube Base Oil.The Solvent that has absorbed Extract from the Lube Distillate also requires furtherprocessing to be recovered. The Extract is pumped to Heavy Fuel Oil storage.

F ti ti & S l t E t ti

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Fractionation & Solvent Extraction

Sections

Fractionation

(vacuum)FRACTIONATOR

GAS OIL ~ 10%

DISTILLATE

FEED

HEAVY FUEL OIL ~ 2% TO

STORAGE (SALES)

HEAVY LUBE ~ 16%

DISTILLATE

EXTRACT OIL TO

HEAVY FUEL OIL

STORAGE

LIGHT BASE OIL

TO STORAGE

(SALES)

Solvent

Extraction

LIGHT LUBE ~ 37%

DISTILLATE

TO STORAGE (SALES)

HEAVY BASE OIL

TO STORAGE(SALES)

Storage

Tanks

Storage

Tanks

FEED

~ 300 oC

~ 20 oC

~ 150 oC

OFF GAS

(INCINERATED)

SOLVENT

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Product Load Outs

Products from the Re-refining process are stored in dedicated tanks.

Samples are taken from each tank to ensure they meet to specifications.

An on site laboratory tests various quality parameters of each sample.

The Light Base Oil (SN150) and Heavy Base Oil (SN300) require a Certificateof Analysis (C of A) from the laboratory to verify the products meet thecustomers required specifications.

A sample is taken of the load out to the road tanker for the customerpurchasing the product along with a copy of the C of A.

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Product Load Outs

Heavy

Fuel Oil

Gas Oil

Residue

Base Oils

Fuel Oils

Residue

Fuel Oils

Light Fuel Oil

Light Base

Oil(SN 150)

Heavy

Base Oil(SN 300)

SALES

SALES

DISPOSAL