RRF DATABASE - OIL

Here are some useful public domain reports on used oil, which you may find of interest.

If, on the other hand, you want to learn more about the Forum's own studies, then follow this link to the folder of your choice.

• UK Waste Oils Market 2001 `(0.3 MB)

This study was written by consultants Oakdene Hollins.

790,000 tonnes of lubricants with a value of £1.8 billion were sold in the UK during 1999. Within a few months of purchase approximately 50% had been used in a variety of products or otherwise lost in use.

Of the remaining 395,000 tonnes, more than 80% was collected, mostly free of charge, added to a mixture of other oily wastes and after rudimentary treatment used as a support fuel. Almost all of the recovered lubricant is treated to meet a specification as a recovered fuel oil (RFO) and is burnt in seven large coal or oil-fired power stations, 125 rotary heaters in road stone quarries, two or three cement and lime kilns, dozens of industrial furnaces, and an unknown number of smaller boilers and space heaters.

The users of RFO pay up to 11p per litre, a price that has doubled in the past two years. Demand for RFO has increased over the past 18 months because of its relative price advantage over virgin fuel oil and gas oil, aided by poorly structured contracts for RFO that stipulate fixed prices at historically low levels. The additional demand has been met by importing as much 95,000 tonnes of waste oils from other European countries and elsewhere.

• no further reports yet