United Arab Emirates: Advanced Oil Re-Refinery Plant to Treat Oily Waste and Sludge
In progressively developing economies such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), sustainability across all sectors is valued as an integral component of development efforts, and waste management is treated as vital.
In line with this, the country has seen heavy investment in technology and innovation as it works towards its agenda for sustainability and its mission to achieve a circular economy. In particular, sustainability is driving the actions of many organizations in the marine, oil and gas, and industrial sectors. To meet their green ambitions, they are looking across the value chain for improvements. One such area is oil re-refining – waste oil is regarded as hazardous waste due to its high concentration of heavy metal, organic substances, and perpetual organic pollutants, which needs to be treated in an environmentally responsible way.
Thanks to advanced technology, waste oil can be transformed into a renewable resource. With the recent launch of an advanced Oil Re-Refinery Plant, the Environmental Solutions vertical of UAE-based Dulsco Group establishes itself as a leader in the oil re-refining industry. The 14,000 square meter plant, located in Jebel Ali, can process around 2,000 tons of oily waste and sludge. That amount is generated by the marine, oil and gas, and industrial sectors per month.
As a regional and international trade hub, daily marine traffic into Jebel Ali and the Port of Rashid in Dubai is high, requiring a facility for safely disposing of marine waste. The state-of-the-art facility is the only plant of its kind in the Gulf region that is fully compliant with International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and Marine Emergency Mutual Aid Centre (MEMAC) standards – a testament to the company’s pioneering spirit and unwavering commitment to excellence and sustainability. Dulsco is also the only waste management company approved for treating all types of marine wastes falling under MARPOL classifications under annex I, II, III, IV and V.
According to Dulsco’s COO, Environmental Solutions, John Grainger, the Oil Re-Refinery Plant adds to Dubai’s goal of providing a fully integrated resolution to the maritime industry’s various oily wastes to help protect the environment and the UAE’s vital natural resources. “The plant is another addition to our portfolio of infrastructural projects that we have embarked on and has been designed to meet the highest technical and environmental standards. With safety as a priority, the design, equipment, systems, controls and processes have all been implemented to keep employees, the environment and process integrity safe.”
The fully integrated and Programmable Logic Controlled (PLC) plant, with a central control room, processes all oily waste received to produce both light and heavy fuels. These are then recycled back into the industry.
The light oil generated in-house is also used as fuel for its process operations. In addition, the facility treats and converts the recovered water from its process and turns it into irrigation-quality water in its water treatment facility. The water regenerated is also re-used in its boiler or provided to end-users for irrigation.
The facility thus recovers all potentially reusable fractions from the waste and creates value from waste. That reflects Dulsco’s leadership in innovative sustainability practices and contribution to promoting the circular economy in the UAE. “As the global focus on environment and climate continues to grow, our priority is to play a leading role in implementing sustainable infrastructure in the UAE. We do this by ensuring that our values are applied through investment, expertise, and education in circular economy best practices and recycling projects,” concludes Mr. Grainger.
(Published in GLOBAL RECYCLING Magazine 1/2022, Page 24, Photo: Dulsco)
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