Today's protagonist is RRBO (Re Refined Base Oil), which is a refined base oil, sometimes also known as regenerated base oil or regenerated oil. As the name suggests, it is a base oil obtained by purifying and refining waste lubricating oil products. In fact, for recycled oil, friends in the industry should have heard of it before. It is not a new thing and has long passed the peak period. Now it seems to have slowly entered a stage of slow development. Therefore, I choose to briefly talk to you about this base oil at this stage.
What should we say first? Craftsmanship
Simply put, it can be divided into hydrogenation process or non hydrogenation (solvent route or physical route), similar to conventional petroleum based raw material process route, physical and chemical. Of course, the conclusion is that the finished product produced by hydrogenation process has a lighter color (water white) and better performance, but the cost also increases with the introduction of hydrogen. At current prices, the price of excellent hydrogenated regenerated oil is not even cheaper than petroleum based oil. The key to hydrogenation process is the introduction of catalyst, and the performance and long-term stability and reliability of the catalyst are key influencing factors on the performance of hydrogenation base oil. Here, it should be pointed out that the components of waste engine oil are more complex than petroleum based refining materials. In addition to gum and asphaltene, there are also common products of excessive oxidation of engine oil, sludge, organic acids, moisture, as well as some metal ions, such as calcium, magnesium, zinc, phosphorus, sulfur, etc. brought in by various lubricating oil additives. There are also various metal elements brought in by engine wear, such as iron, copper, lead, etc. In addition, there are heterocyclic N, O, etc., and a key substance is chloride ions. These impurities can easily cause poisoning or partial failure of hydrogenation catalysts. Therefore, the hydrogenation process catalyst of waste engine oil is not completely the same as that of traditional second-class oil refineries. The requirements for waste engine oil are not the same. On the contrary, it is even higher, which is a key issue affecting costs. Secondly, the traditional base oil refining process we use now, whether it is second-class oil or third class oil, has advanced foreign technologies that can be borrowed, such as Chevron or Mobil, which can refer to the advanced experience already formed by others, so that we can avoid many detours. But for waste engine oil, the starting speed in this field is similar both domestically and internationally, and everyone is crossing the river by feeling the stones. In this way, there will always be trial and error costs, which will also be reflected in the cost.
Due to the terrifying nature of those waste ions, which have a fatal impact on catalysts (this principle can be referred to as SAPS's impact on post-treatment, which is actually 10 times greater than that), if there is a way to remove those substances in advance, then the subsequent process can actually learn from traditional second-class oil catalysts and the entire process flow, right. And this is currently everyone's overall idea, which is the biggest job of RRBO base oil, pre-processing.
In fact, hydrogenation is not difficult, and everyone knows how to do it. The difficulty lies in the pretreatment. If the pretreatment is done well, hydrogenation will not be a problem, the catalyst life will be long, and the performance of the base oil index will be stable. The biggest difference between various hydrogenation processes at home and abroad that we see now is mainly at this key point, including physical methods, solvent methods, hydrogenation methods, membrane methods, and so on. But without using any methods, this step of processing is the key point of the entire RRBO. And it is precisely this process that currently seems to have no absolute advantage technology, and is still in the stage of multiple technologies coexisting and parallel. Therefore, the market needs further screening. Note that I am referring to the market, not the technology being screened. The current situation in our country is that there are relatively few refineries using hydrogenation routes, so even fewer have done well in pretreatment, which requires time. Due to the significant investment in RRBO's refineries and the current price gap with petroleum based base oils being too small, there is not as much capital entering this field, resulting in fewer and fewer new refineries and a lack of significant technological breakthroughs, leading to a bottleneck in the industry's development. Meanwhile, the scale of RRBO refineries is constrained by the use of waste engine oil raw materials (requiring companies to recycle waste oil barrels by barrels), which is also the reason why RRBO refineries are relatively scattered. Overall, the difficulties still exist, and we will continue to explore the road slowly.
The second one, talk about performance.
One type of regenerated oil is currently the mainstream in the market, while in China, crude paraffin based base oils are mainly classified into two types. In this sense, regenerated oil can make up for the missing one type of oil. However, due to the different processes of regenerated oil, the performance of the product varies greatly, which requires careful identification. Hydrogenated oil with relatively excellent performance indicators may have better performance indicators, but the number of refineries is not large. Overall, as long as the regenerated base oil meets the requirements of API Class II oil, people can try using it. It can be used as a conventional base oil to blend industrial or automotive oils. As the saying goes, it is important to discern and use with caution, as there are still relatively few products that are absolutely stable for current hydrogenated recycled oil products. In addition, from the perspective of absolute structure, it is also very difficult to regenerate the current process to be exactly the same as that of petroleum refining. After all, there are impurities in the serious Class II oil. Since it is a Class II oil, it has a certain tolerance rate. Don't look at recycled oil with colored glasses, thinking that its performance is definitely not good just because it is recycled oil. This principle is very simple. Nowadays, with the abundance of materials, every city has a second-hand market where many things are not abandoned due to poor performance, but are no longer needed for many other reasons. The value of many products there is still very high, and even the performance of many things is not inferior to new ones. You need to have a pair of discerning eyes. Another logic is that the performance of current petroleum base oils is much better than in the past, and many base oils have not undergone significant deterioration before flowing directly into the waste oil market (the terminal is fooled, and the oil change period is basically unchanged for a long time). Therefore, as long as the purification is proper, the purity is high enough, and the impurities are thoroughly removed, I believe that recycled oil has great development prospects, which is also the essential reason why the country vigorously advocates the development of recycled oil circular economy.
However, we still need to criticize those companies that use recycled oil for so-called low-carbon marketing. First of all, it is impossible for a company to use RRBO exclusively. It may use a little bit, but using this to promote and hype up the so-called low-carbon concept is a bit of a waste. In fact, for lubricant companies, it is always a high carbon industry, whether it is base oil, additives, or even packaging materials, all of which consume carbon. This is a 100% traditional petroleum industry, and the only way to achieve low carbon is to improve performance and reduce lubricant sales. (And this is the root of the enterprise, no one wants to). So, I don't oppose using RRBO, but I need to provide practical feedback on where RRBO performance is good and where it's not? Providing feedback to refineries, improving the performance of RRBO, promoting the development of the RRBO industry, and enabling them to compete with the world is the official path.
Thirdly, let's talk about the issue of market acceptance.
This topic is quite interesting, let's say if.
What would a consumer think if they noticed on the back label of a bucket of engine oil they bought that the product contains 30% recycled oil? I think with the current development of the industry, he is likely to think that this oil is not very good, because in their eyes, the recycled oil is just the black color of waste engine oil, and the quality is seriously inferior. Also, if the price of this barrel of engine oil is not much different from that of other normal engine oils, is it willing to pay for this so-called low-carbon? Contemplate deeply, given the current market environment, there is a high probability that it cannot be achieved.
If the customer does not accept it, why should we do it? Enterprises are not social charities, meeting customer needs is the source of profit. At present, many companies are still holding a pipa to cover up the use of recycled engine oil, and dare not speak up loudly. This is another obstacle to the vigorous promotion of recycled oil.
Okay, saying so much is useless and boring. In fact, sometimes, as mentioned at the beginning of a chapter, time is actually the best medicine.
With the passage of time, people's attitudes towards recycled oil will develop and change, but before the change, it requires the efforts of all industry personnel. Firstly, we are willing to accept recycled oil ourselves. Secondly, we are willing to promote it, at least not against it. Finally, it is the end users who recognize and accept it. This has a long snow slope. However, large enterprises should play a leading and exemplary role. Of course, for our industry, the first to take the crab is also the one who gains the most. Moreover, the promotion of recycled oil should be positively guided rather than maliciously smeared, and without investigation, there is no right to speak.
In terms of action, given the current situation of internal competition, do we need a 100% recycled engine oil (with cost-effectiveness)? Or hydraulic oil? Everyone should use recycled oil openly and honestly. In the past few years, we have not done anything positive to guide the use of recycled oil, we have only been trapped in the circle of conventional second-class oil and have never gone out. Only when it is truly used comprehensively can it drive investment and development in recycled oil. It's like gutter oil transforming into aviation kerosene. Look, gutter oil won't flow into everyone's dining table anymore, you don't even need it if you want to use it.
