Veolia and Total open oil recycling plant

Environmental services firm Veolia Environnement and oil company Total have opened a new plant near Le Havre, France, to regenerate used oils into engine lubricants. The plant has a processing capacity of 120,000 tonnes of oil a year, nearly half of the total amount of used oil generated annually in France.

Currently, most used oil is burned as fuel. The new plant uses a wiped-film vacuum distillation process to extract the hydrocarbon parts of the oil for re-use. The base oil produced by the plant will be blended into Total’s range of lubricants.