Publisher's Note

Our cover story article, Managing Industrial Oil- Oil life extension and Recycling highlights an Automobile giant’s effort at fluid life extension and recycling which has helped in minimizing environmental liability, enhancing the company’s image as a corporate citizen while producing significant cost savings.

A study by a leading consulting firm found, approximately 68% of the finished lubricant demand across the globe is converted into used oil. Of the total used oil collected, 78% is consumed as industrial fuel and 16% is re-refined.

However, India currently consumes about 2 MMT of lubricating oils (excluding transformer oils etc.), of which only 0.15-0.17 MMT (7-8%) oils find their way back as re-refined oils. Used lubricating oils have been categorized as hazardous waste and require special permission from the Pollution Control Boards for storage, transportation and refining. As a result most bulk users resort to the auction of used oils to approved refiners. Unlike Europe & America, there are not many organised agencies into collection of used oils in India and hence no accurate data is available on the used oil collected and refined.

Owing to strong regulation and enforcement, Europe is a front runner in the re-refining industry where nearly 90% of all used oil is collected, of which 50% is sent for re-refining. As a result, re-refined base stocks at present account for 13-15% of the overall base stock supply in the region.

Following significant technological advances in the last 10 years, the re-refining industry has reached a stage where it can produce re-refined base stocks on par with virgin base stocks. Additionally, some of the manufacturers are blending re-refined oils with virgin base oils to manufacture oils and greases. The awareness of the quality of re-refined lubricants is spreading among a growing band of end-users; however, this perception is not nearly universal and customer hesitance due to perceptions of poor quality and inconsistent supply still prevent a larger-scale industry growth.

There are three key factors driving the re-refining industry. First, growing virgin base stock prices due to high costs of crude oil have increased interest in re-refined base stocks. Second, improvements in re-refining technology have dramatically improved the quality of re-refined base stocks, allowing them to be used in blending of a growing range of lubricants. Third, regulation in Europe, and increasingly in North America, favors re-refining.

However, to achieve its potential, the re-refining industry will have to deal with a number of challenges. Chief among which is the negative customer perceptions. End-users who have no experience with re-refined base stocks equate them with poor quality, substandard and adulterated products. They also tend to clump all re-refining technologies and re-refined base stocks into one category. This hurts re-refiners who use advanced technologies to produce high-quality base stocks.

Included in this issue of Machinery Lubrication are articles on maintenance and reliability which talk about five factors to consider when setting oil cleanliness standards and as well as content on the fields on inhibiting rust and corrosion leading to prevent machine failures as corrosion is detrimental to the reliability program and should always be fought at its root causes.

As always, we welcome our readers’ suggestions and comments which enable us to provide more relevant and beneficial content. We request you to keep the feedback and suggestions coming in to help us serve you better.

As this year draws towards an end, we are excited at the propositions 2014 has to offer. We would soon be circulating our 2014 Media planner which includes newer avenues for collaboration with Machinery Lubrication India. Please write to us at info@machinerylubricationindia.com if you wish to receive more information on the same.

We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our subscribers, advertisers & their families a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Warm Regards,
Udey Dhir