Recovered Fuel Oil

Recovered fuel oil — the liquid fraction from pyrolyzing end-of-life tires and non-recycled plastics — is moving from niche by-product to a tradeable energy commodity, sought by marine-fuel buyers and renewable-diesel refiners alike.

Recovered fuel oil (rFO) is emerging as one of the most commercially significant outputs of the tire and plastic pyrolysis sector. Where early pyrolysis plants focused on recovered carbon black, the industry’s fastest-growing revenue stream is now the liquid oil — a low-carbon substitute for conventional heavy fuel oil that can drop directly into existing marine, refinery, and industrial fuel infrastructure.

What Drives the Market

Three forces are converging. First, the International Maritime Organization’s 2020 sulphur cap (IMO 2020) forced ship operators onto low-sulphur fuel, opening a durable price premium for compliant, waste-derived bunker blends. Second, refinery mandates and credits for renewable diesel (HVO) have made pyrolysis oil a sought-after co-processing feedstock — certified at partner refineries and already moving through co-processing trials in Australia and Europe. Third, tightening extended-producer-responsibility rules on scrap tires and plastic waste are increasing the feedstock supply that pyrolysis can convert.

The result is a structural shift: recovered fuel oil is no longer a by-product that must be disposed of, but a commodity with forward sales contracts, specifications, and an offtake market of its own.

From Waste to Fuel

The chemistry is familiar. Pyrolysis heats hydrocarbon-rich waste in the absence of oxygen, cracking long polymer chains back into shorter, fuel-range molecules. From end-of-life tires and non-recycled plastics, the process yields three fractions: recovered fuel oil, recovered carbon black, and syngas that is recycled to power the plant.

Applications Across the Fuel Chain

• Marine fuel — rFO blends into low-sulphur bunker fuel, giving ship operators a compliant, lower-carbon option
• Renewable diesel co-processing — rFO feeds hydrotreaters producing HVO, displacing virgin feedstock and qualifying for renewable-fuel credits
• Industrial fuel oil — a direct substitute for heavy fuel oil in boilers, kilns, and process heating
• Forward sales contracts — long-term offtake agreements give buyers supply certainty and developers revenue certainty before construction

Why It Matters for the Energy Transition

Every tonne of recovered fuel oil displaces a tonne of fossil-derived fuel while permanently diverting scrap tires and mixed plastics from landfill and incineration. For energy-intensive industries and refiners under pressure to lower carbon intensity, rFO is one of the few drop-in solutions that improves the carbon profile without new combustion infrastructure.

Learn More:

• Tire pyrolysis projects
• rFO marine fuel coprocessing
• Renewable diesel refinery certification
• Commodity sales and offtake
• Recovered carbon black — sister commodity

Position Your Waste-Derived Fuel Oil for the Market

Recovered fuel oil is now a tradeable commodity with forward contracts and a defined offtake market.

Ready to secure rFO supply, co-processing, or forward sales?

Contact Klean Industries about recovered fuel oil supply, co-processing partnerships, and forward sales contracts » GO.