Upcycling hydrocarbon waste

As of 23 August 2019, hazardous waste with a calorific value of > 20 MJ/kg may no longer be disposed of to landfill.

This creates a major headache for the South African oil industry as it will be extremely difficult to dispose of tank sludge and oily wastes.

FFS’s R&D team have conducted extensive pilot plant work over several years on a multitude of technologies to determine the most suitable one to process these materials.

Thermal devolatisation was selected and we are extremely proud of our new FFS Hydrocarbon Waste Recovery Services plant, which is now fully operational at our Evander branch.

With this plant operational, FFS no longer disposes of oily hazardous waste to landfill – a key component of our strategy to achieve zero waste.

In another hydrocarbon waste recovery project, FFS was awarded the tender for the recovery of waste oils from both Sasol’s Secunda East and West API dams.

The project has huge environmental benefits in that FFS will recover oil from effluent and reduce VOC emissions at the same time.

The recovery plants were commissioned in May and are fully operational. 

• To arrange a trial at our facility or for further information, please contact our New Business Director, Petrus Scholtz, on petruss@ffs.co.za or call him on 031 459 5300.