The used oil that Auto Blue Oils collects from workshops, factories and fleet operators across Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal does not disappear into a drum and vanish from the world. It enters a processing chain that transforms a classified hazardous waste into a valuable industrial product. Understanding that journey — from the moment oil leaves your engine to its final use as industrial burner fuel — helps explain why proper used oil collection is not just environmentally responsible but economically sensible.
The journey begins with collection. Auto Blue Oils' vehicles collect used oil from generators and transport it to the company's storage facility in Westonaria, where it is received into the 80,000-litre capacity tank infrastructure. At this point, the oil is assessed for quality and contamination level.
Different grades of used oil have different processing pathways. Lightly contaminated oil — typically from clean industrial applications — has higher recovery value than heavily contaminated oil from mixed or degraded sources. Segregating oil streams at the collection point, and avoiding mixing with other substances like coolant or solvents, is therefore important for maximising recovery value and the rebate you receive.
Before processing, used oil undergoes pre-treatment to remove suspended solids, free water and light volatile fractions. This is done through a combination of settling — allowing heavier particles to sink — centrifugation, which spins the oil to separate denser contaminants, and heating, which drives off water and light volatiles.
The result is a cleaner oil feedstock that is ready for the primary processing step, and which burns more cleanly and efficiently as a fuel than untreated used oil.
The most common processing pathway for collected used oil in South Africa is conversion to industrial burner fuel — also known as furnace fuel or secondary fuel oil. This process involves blending the pre-treated used oil to achieve a consistent fuel specification, targeting a defined viscosity, flash point and calorific value that meets the requirements of industrial burner systems.
Industrial burner fuel is used in a wide range of applications where high-temperature combustion is required — cement kilns, lime kilns, brick kilns, steel furnaces, asphalt plants and industrial boilers, among others. It is a direct substitute for heavy fuel oil or diesel in these applications, at a lower cost than virgin fuel — which is part of what makes the economics of used oil recycling work for the entire value chain.
Every litre of used oil properly recycled into burner fuel displaces a litre of virgin petroleum fuel and keeps a million potential litres of water safe from contamination.
For higher-quality used oil feedstocks, a more sophisticated processing pathway exists — re-refining. This process uses vacuum distillation, hydrotreating and other refining technologies to strip the used oil of its contaminants and return it to a quality comparable to virgin base oil, suitable for reuse as a lubricant.
Re-refined base oil uses approximately 85% less energy to produce than virgin base oil derived from crude petroleum. It meets the same performance specifications as virgin oil and is used in the same applications — engine lubricants, gear oils, hydraulic fluids and industrial lubricants. Re-refining represents the highest level of resource recovery from used oil and the most complete circular economy loop.
Used oil also finds application in the mining and explosives industry, where certain oil fractions are used as a component in the production of ANFO — ammonium nitrate fuel oil — explosives widely used in open-cast mining operations across South Africa. This represents a specialist but significant secondary market for processed used oil in the South African context.
The transformation of used oil from hazardous waste to industrial fuel is not just an environmental success story — it is a demonstration that the circular economy works in practice. Every litre of used oil that Auto Blue Oils collects and delivers to a licensed processor is a litre diverted from the environment and returned to productive use. It reduces demand for virgin petroleum, lowers industrial energy costs, and keeps toxic contaminants out of South Africa's soil and water.
Contact Auto Blue Oils — your used oil becomes fuel, not pollution.