Comparative study of ultrasonic processor to blending kettle for production of lubricants

Abstract

Due to the high cost of energy needed in traditional (blending kettle) lube oil blending/manufacturing for viscosity change and the need for specialised lubricants in batches of 1 to 10 tons, it has been found to be beneficial to use ultrasound method for lube oil blending and dispersion of additives and viscosity change. This removes the need for heating, using insulated vessels/blending kettles, as well as high powered agitators, thereby giving huge energy savings and reducing dramatically the carbon footprint. 3,000 litres of lube oil can be manufactured in one hour using a 1.5kw tubular ultrasonic processor without heating, agitation or moving parts unlike the traditional blending method otherwise called blending kettle with the same capacity which manufactures 3,000 litres in 7.5 hours with enormous amount of energy and heat involved. Furthermore, using the ultrasonic method eliminates production delays arising from heating and cooling and mixing high quality products hence aids continuous operation.