In a previous blog we looked at how harmful waste oil can be when it’s not safely recycled and finds its way into the environment.
Engine oil is insoluble and full of toxic chemicals so even small quantities of oil can have very harmful and long-lasting effects on the environment. In the UK it’s illegal to dump oil or pour it down the drain, instead you must take it to an oil recycling bank like PCWS, we’ll even pay you for recycling your oil!
In this blog we’ll look at what happens when oil is recycled.
1) Oil arrives at a processing plant and is sorted and separated by the process of distillation. The different parts of the oil are then taken to different areas of the plant.
2) The oil is then pre-treated to make it less toxic.
3) Now the water is drawn out of the oil during a process of dehydration, this makes the minerals in the oil easier to extract.
4) Next the oil goes through vacuum distillation. During this process the minerals are removed and the gasoline is recovered from the oil.
5) Finally the oil goes through another distillation process that separates out the lube oil to be refined and reused as motor oil.
Currently less than a third of all waste oil in the world is being recycled. That means that a huge proportion of it is getting lost and polluting the environment. There is a huge network of over 1000 oil recycling banks in the UK so make sure that you dispose of your responsibly and safely.
