Waste oil management plant coming to Tobago

The Tobago House of Assembly (THA) has taken a step forward in sustainable waste management with the approval of a USD $475K Waste Oil Processing Pilot Plant for Tobago.

The Atomic Vacuum Distillation Pilot Plant was proposed to the Division of Infrastructure, Quarries and the Environment (DIQE) by its partner, the Basel Convention Regional Centre for Training and Technology Transfer for the Caribbean Region (BCRC-Caribbean). The facility is purposed to both minimise environmental hazards and return economic benefit to the landscape. It is to facilitate collection, storage, treatment and re-refining of waste lubricating oil into a high yield, high quality and environmentally safe base oil product for reuse in the market.

A recycling facility of this kind in Tobago, according to the administration would remove the need and logistical challenges encountered in shipping waste oil to Trinidad and would result in direct cost savings for the Assembly and local companies. Further, the plant would open the possibilities for the housing of other kinds of recycling initiatives on the Island.

This development is one outcome of an ongoing collaboration with the Assembly and BCRC- Caribbean under the Development of a Waste Oil Management System for Trinidad and Tobago (WOMS-TT) Project being funded by the Green Fund.

Two thousand five hundred and twenty square feet of land is being sourced to house the facility; construction of the plant is planned for 2018.

The plant, a pilot-scaled model with minimum dimensions of 20 ft. x 14 ft. x 16 ft. high would be one of over 20 similar-sized plants deployed globally to treat with smaller rates of waste oil generation like that of Tobago’s approximately 1,000 litres daily rate.

The unit can be up-scaled to re-refine up to 75,000 litres per day, using a semi-continuous process.

The WOMS-TT project, funded by the Green Fund, supports the development of this pilot-scale plant for the treatment and processing of generated waste oil in Tobago.