SOLVENT EXTRACTION TECHNOLOGY FOR USED OIL TREATMENT
abstract
Solvent extraction, an innovative adaptation of existing crude oil refining technology, is being studied for its potential to upgrade used oils produced by small-scale oil treatment facilities. This report presents the design for a pilot-scale treatment plant using solvent extraction technology to produce an improved fuel product.
The solvent treatment technology presented in this report, either alone or in combination with existing used oil dehydration facilities, has the potential to significantly reduce the impurities in the product oil currently produced by used oil processing or treatment companies. This product oil could be used for higher value fuels without attempting to meet all the stringent specifications and requirements that would accompany the production of lubrication stocks. The technology has already been used successfully in Europe as a unit process on a larger scale to produce lubrication stock from used oil. The technology also has the potential to produce a higher quality fuel than the heavy “cutter stock” currently being produced for blending into marine diesel fuel.
This report presents the design and supporting documents for the construction of a pilot scale solvent treatment plant. Observations and discussion regarding the project and the design assumptions are presented along with the design. The objectives for the design phase of the project were as follows:
·Determine key process parameters to guide the design of the pilot plant;
·Design a pilot scale plant that produces sufficient quantities of used oil for product testing.
This report also recommends the future construction of a pilot scale solvent treatment plant by interested parties to allow refinement of the design, testing with a wide variety of used oil streams, treatment cost evaluation, and production of sufficient quantities of product oils and asphalt bottoms to allow acceptance testing with customers of these products.
