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Oiled up: What’s new in recycling used lubricating oils
22/1/2025
8 min read
Feature
Use of re-refined base oils is becoming more commonplace, for practical, ethical and sustainable good practice. Toby Clark looks at the latest developments, such as engine oils for heavy duty vehicles.
Lubricating oil is essential for most machinery and the vast majority is derived from fossil oil. Mineral-based oil can withstand the temperatures and pressures that build up in rotating or sliding mechanisms, and can help to transfer heat away from critical spots.
There are honourable exceptions (vintage motor races are known for the smell of hot castor oil) but alternatives such as animal-derived oils are often unacceptable. Even so-called ‘synthetic’ oils are typically derived from crude mineral oil products.
But mineral lubricating oils do not have to be consumed and then disposed of. In fact, they can be recycled and reused as a high-quality product known as re-refined base oils (RRBO), again and again. These are blended, and suitable additive packs added to create a usable oil. As Finnish firm Tecoil puts it: ‘We can regenerate used lubricant oil back to base oil infinite times. This means significantly less CO2 emissions and no need for virgin crude oil.’