Dewatering, sludge removal and pre-treatment of waste oils (E02-99, R12, R9)

Used oil drained from machinery and vehicles can pick up various contaminants during use. Water, sludge, dust, soot, metal particles and other foreign matter can get into it, so in this condition it is not suitable for direct further recovery. The purpose of pre-treatment is to remove these contaminants and prepare the oil for further processing. During treatment, the oily fraction, the water and the solid contaminants are separated from one another. After dewatering and sludge removal, a cleaner oil of more uniform composition remains, which is better suited to further recovery. The separated water and sludge are sent for further treatment appropriate to their own properties. Through further processing, the cleaned oil can be turned into, for example, an oil product usable in road construction or another material suitable for industrial purposes. In this way the valuable oil content is not lost together with the contaminants but becomes reusable. The technology also reduces the amount of waste that has to be finally disposed of and helps to prevent used oil from causing environmental damage by entering the soil or watercourses.