Decarbonisation Technology November 2025 Issue

Pioneering circular economy in spent lube oil regeneration

2011 Acquisition of Criterion Reforming Catalyst Business Willow Island production site 2010 Acquisition of Rio Tinto Alcan business Brockville Production site

2016 Acquisition of a stake in Arol Energy

2017 Acquisition of HTI

2021 Acquisition of Flowvision

2016 Acquisition of Scutter LLC O’Fallon production site

1950

Procatalyse

Operator since 1963

2022 Acquisition of Hydr oT hane

IFPEN Industrial division

Axens 2001 1978 Eurecat

A xens

Axens Group

I telyum

1953

Heurtey

2008

1939

Heurtey Petrochem

Petro-Chem

2014

1963 Creation of Viscolube 1983 National Consortium for the C ollection, M anagement and Tr eatment of U sed M ineral O ils (CONOU) 2001 Ceccano plant group 1&2 (2025) 2003 Pieve plant group 2&3 (2018) 2019 Become Itelyum

1979

Proser

1990

Prosernat

1971 Nat

A xens

Alliance since 1993 One focal point

Leader in rening technologies and associated catalysts

Figure 2 Circular economy in spent lube oil regeneration

outlets, this approach is both economically and environmentally sound. Case study 2: Revivoil – circularity in lubricant re-refining, Italy Lubricants are prime candidates for circularity because spent oils retain much of their hydrocarbon base structure. Yet not all recycling methods achieve the quality required for reaching formulations for Group II/III. Some operators assume that simple distillation of mixed used oils is sufficient. However, spent lubricants contain complex additive packages, viscosity improvers, detergents, and pollution due to collection and transportation. Without proper technology, contaminants remain, making it impossible to meet the stringent specifications to recover base oil qualities equivalent to virgin ones. The Revivoil process, co-developed by Axens and Itelyum, regenerates spent lubricants into Group II/III base oils through specific technologies, such as a pretreatment preflash unit, distillation unit, and thermal deasphalting (TDA) unit, while Axens is the licensor for the Hydrofinishing (HDF): • The preflash section is for dewatering and removal of light ends. • The TDA section is a specific vacuum distillation dedicated to recovering the different cuts of various grades of spent oils. • The HDF unit is for re-refining of the cuts of various grades of spent oils. It operates in batch mode, meaning it processes a type of

feed during a period of time, then changes to another type of feed. The key targets of the HDF plant are to improve the colour of the spent oils, remove the metals contained in the spent oils, remove sulphur, and hydrogenate the aromatics compounds to meet the corresponding API group specification, which leads to virgin oil quality equivalent. “ Lubricants are prime candidates for circularity because spent oils retain much of their hydrocarbon base structure. Yet not all recycling methods achieve the quality required for reaching formulations for Group II/III ” Optionally, a fourth process of propane solvent deasphalting (PDA), licensed by Axens, can be implemented to treat the bottom of TDA and vacuum residue, recovering the Brightstock (BS), a high viscosity oil, if present in the spent lubricant feedstock. The BS spent oils are also processed in the HDF unit in batch mode. The redistillation step is the differentiator that ensures regenerated oils meet the demanding requirements of today’s high-performance automotive and industrial lubricants through the downstream hydrotreatment. This results in: • More than 40 years of continuous industrial operation across multiple units in Italy and globally. • More than 30 years of partnership between Axens and Itelyum.