Modeling of waste engine oil treatment by means of inorganic membranes

Abstract

Today, the possibility of waste engine oil in-situ treatment on engine has found its attraction due to issues such as environmental concern, alternative technology for conventional waste oil treatment approaches but with less impact to the environment and potential to decrease carcinogenic effect on human health. Parallel evolution of cutting edge technology, precisely nanotechnology and information technologies allowed us to take wider control over process design, construction and their quality control. Such that, multidisciplinary research become more fascinating and promising. This work attempts to cover the problem of waste engine oil purification by individual treatment of them at the place of origination. Hence, its further draining, transportation, collection, blending with other waste in order to regenerate them together would be not necessary. The study is focused on modeling of the process of the waste engine oil treatment by means of membrane technologies in-situ on engine using operational condition of the lubrication system. This was done thanks to contemporary microscopy tools, image processing capabilities, computational engineering abilities, software to integrate them together and of course bright minds to adopt these tool for specific needs. Literature review revealed the real picture of the situation of lubricant and lubrication system along with separation technologies of today and their application. Following the review, appropriate tools were applied on obtained from previously research membrane made of ceramic-metal material. The membrane was acquired using sintering and therefore had irregular structure. Scanning electron microscope (SEM), emission dispersive X-Ray spectroscopy (EDS), image processing and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) were used for membrane assessment. The results showed good agreement of reconstructed 3d morphology of the membrane which was obtained thanks to image processing following the image acquisition with SEM. The morphology further has been subjected to viscous fluid flow where one could notice fluid streamlines. Successful test results and validation results obtained with 9% of difference showed satisfying Reynolds number convergence being laminar flow after so-called relaxation time. This fact allowed us to model (simulate) the process of waste oil permeation through the porous media of the membrane of the study. Consequent results of the simulation were used to estimate the flow rate and velocity of the fluid under investigation