The French environmental services group Veolia Environnement and the oil and gas concern Total have officially inaugurated their recycling plant for waste engine oils in Gonfreville l’Orcher near Le Havre in Normandy. The Osilub plant has a processing capacity of 120,000 tonnes of oil per year, or the equivalent of nearly half of the waste oil generated annually in France, according to a joint press statement from Veolia Environnement and Total.
The two companies said they had invested around €55m in the new facility. The Gonfreville l’Orcher refinery is expected to have a recycling yield of around 75 per cent. "Completed after 20 months of construction work, the new plant expands engine oil treatment capacity in France and, more broadly, north-western Europe, to regenerate used oil as high-end engine oils," the plant's owners said.