Base Oil Yield

When a re-refining plant recovers less base than expected, the answer is not usually to rip the equipment out. Base oil yield is shaped by the quality of the feed, by how much water and light ends it carries, by the health of the vacuum stage and by the losses taken during refining, and each is a separate point to investigate before raising a single operating temperature.

Feedstock Quality

One tonne of waste oil is not one tonne of recoverable lubricant. Engine, hydraulic and industrial oils carry different proportions of water, fuel dilution, sludge and metal, all of which end up in the residue rather than the product. Before any yield figure is judged, the true composition of the incoming raw must be understood.

Water and Light-End Content

Water, gasoline and diesel diluents raise the raw mass but never enter the final base, so two plants running the same tonnage can show different recovery simply because their feed compositions differ. These light components are stripped early, and a drop in claimed yield often traces back to weight that was never going to convert in the first place.

Sludge, Soot and Heavy Pollutants

Service leaves soot, oxidation products and degraded additives that finish in the residue rather than the base. When a plant’s sludge weight suddenly rises, the cause is more likely a change in the feedstock than a fault in the column, so checking the raw supply is the cheaper first step before blaming the equipment.

Vacuum Instability and Refining Losses

An unsteady vacuum forces a higher temperature to achieve the same separation, cracking light products and sacrificing recovery. Distillation yield is not the final number either, since the later purification can leave oil trapped in spent clay while a solvent route retrieves more. Judging performance properly therefore requires the mass balance of the whole process, not one stage in isolation.

Learn More:

• Feasibility Studies for Waste-to-Value Projects
• Turn-Key EPC Delivery
• Plant Design & Engineering
• Facility Efficiency Upgrades
• Resource Recovery Projects

Recover More From Every Tonne You Touch

The margin between what a load carries and what reaches the product is where a plant thrives or falls behind.

Klean Industries locates each loss point and tunes the separation to return the maximum usable base fraction.

Considering a base oil yield project?

Contact Klean Industries about base oil yield » GO.