Southern Oil’s Wagga Wagga plant is one of two facilities in Australia producing fully re-refined lube oil accredited for use by a major international oil company for global applications.
The plant which has been in operation since 2001 re-refines about 12% of Australia’s annual waste lube oils from engines, hydraulics and gear oils.
Southern Oil applies its Intellectual Property - which is regarded as leading technology in Australia and overseas – to re-refine waste oil from the Hunter Valley mines, car and truck service centres and other commercial generators.
Northern Oil Refinery
The Northern Oil Refinery at Yarwun, near Gladstone, is the only facility in Queensland capable of recycling waste lube oil back into base lube oil and is the most advanced re-refining plant of its kind in the world.
Commissioned in 2014, It can re-refine over 100 million litres of waste lube oil a year. This means the facility can re-refine 100 per cent of Queensland’s annual waste lube oil production, underwriting a new industry and local jobs.
These environmental and economic credentials earned the re-refinery the Innovation in Sustainable Technologies award at the 2015 Queensland Premier's Sustainability Awards.
The Northern Oil Refinery brings together the re-refining expertise of Southern Oil Refining with the established waste collection knowledge and geographical coverage of J.J. Richards & Sons to provide a long term, environmentally sustainable waste oil recycling option for truck fleets, heavy vehicle operators, mines and local governments.
The refinery will collect and transport waste lube oil from across Australia – at no additional cost to the waste oil generator – to undergo Southern Oil Refining’s leading re-refining process.
This re-refining process is a “cradle to cradle” treatment of oil and the highest form of recycling – keeping lube oil in productive use, lowering carbon emissions and delivering improved oil security through avoided imports while enhancing the environmental credentials of our partners.
Northern Oil Advanced Biofuels Pilot Plant
The Northern Oil Advanced Biofuels Pilot Plant is an $18 million green fuel game changer being developed by Southern Oil Refining at its Northern Oil Refinery at Yarwun, near Gladstone, Queensland.
Comissioned in 2017, the pilot plants will use biomass material such as sugarcane bagasse and prickly acacia as feedstock for the production of bio crude oil, which will be refined into saleable kerosene and diesel products.
Within three years of opening, the pilot plant has produced in excess of one million litres of fuel for use in maritime operations and other industrial sectors. .
The pilot plant aligns with the objectives of the Queensland Government’s Biofutures Roadmap and Action Plan; stimulating an industrial biotechnology revolution in the state.
Southern Oil continues to drive innovation in this space, and has partnered with the Queensland University of Technology to fund research into the production of industrial products from by products generated during biofuel and recycled oil production.
From trash to treasure
Following successful field trials a $150 million commercial-scale biofuel plant producing 200 million litres per annum of advanced biofuel suitable for military, marine and aviation use will be constructed.
This stage of the project will create hundreds of jobs and new industries across regional Queensland.
The commercial plant will require large feedstock volumes of what is currently considered to be ‘waste material’, including bagasse from sugar cane milling, green waste from regional cities, woody weeds like prickly acacia and other wastes such as tyres from the mining sector, heavy transport and passenger vehicles.
Leading the field in research and development
Southern Oil has built Australia’s first biocrude and biofuel laboratory as part of the Northern Oil Advanced Biofuels Pilot Plant.
The laboratory is an important step in developing product specifications for Australian biocrude and refined renewable fuels, paving the way for an open market, and provides Australian biofuels innovators with domestic testing of product samples – saving time and money.
Ultimately the laboratory will help to determine whether a compelling business case can be made to build a commercial scale biorefinery to produce renewable diesel and jet fuels.
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) contributed $2.37 million towards the cost of the $5.3 million state of the art laboratory, with Southern Oil financing the balance.
