One of the subsidiaries of Ukrnafta in western Ukraine is set to solve an environmental issue that hasn't been dealt with for decades. The company plans to recycle oily sludge, a waste material produced by oil refineries.
"The facility isn't new, and so is the equipment, and the technological scheme is also imperfect and obsolete. As a result, oily sludge is produced, which is a mixture of water, solid particles, and salts with oil," said Serhii Koretskyi, the director of Ukrnafta.
Back in the 1970s, one of the company's subsidiaries in western Ukraine started creating waste stabilization ponds, and now there are eight of them. They contain a total of over 28,000 tons of oily sludge. Part of this amount contains hydrocarbons, which means it can be recycled to produce oil.
The company aspires to develop a comprehensive solution to recycle, monetize, and dispose of the existing amounts of oily sludge and other production waste, taking into account the technical and economic efficiency of production processes and applicable environmental regulations. The company is working on a feasibility study and an offer on the existing amounts of oily sludge.
