Abstract
The improper disposal of used frying oil (UFO) presents numerous ecological, environmental and municipal problems. Of great concern is the resultant blockage of municipal drainage systems and water treatment facilities, harm to wildlife when they become coated in it and detriment to aquatic life and ecosystems due to the depletion of the oxygen content in water bodies such as rivers and lakes that have become contaminated. Statistics show that in Trinidad and Tobago, in excess of one million liters of used cooking oil is collected annually from various restaurant chains. This paper investigated the potential of using UFO as a performance enhancing additive for road paving applications utilizing Trinidad Lake Asphalt (TLA) and Trinidad Petroleum Bitumen (TPB) as a mitigation strategy for improper UFO disposal. Modified blends containing various additions of UFO (2–10% wt) were prepared for the TLA and TPB asphaltic binders. Results demonstrated in terms of stiffness, increasing the dosage of UFO in TLA and TPB base binders resulted in a gradual decrease in stiffness (G* value decreased). In terms of elasticity, increasing the dosage of the UFO additive in TLA resulted in a general decrease in the elasticity of the blends indicated by an increase in phase angle or phase lag (δ). Increasing dosages of the UFO additive in TPB resulted in a significant decrease in δ where the most elastic blend was at the 6% UFO level. TLA and UFO-TLA modified blends exhibited significantly lower values of δ and higher values of G* confirming the superiority of the TLA material. Incorporation of the UFO in the blends led to a decrease in the rutting resistance and increase in the fatigue cracking resistance (decrease in G*/sinδ and G*sinδ, respectively). This study highlighted the potential for the reuse of UFO as an asphalt modifier capable of producing customized UFO modified asphaltic blends for special applications and confirms its feasibility as an environmentally attractive means of reusing the waste/hazardous UFO material locally.
Highlights
The environmental problemFrying oil is vegetable and animal oil that is used to fry food at high temperatures by the food industry, restaurants/food service establishments, and homes
The effect of increasing the concentration of the used frying oil (UFO) additive in Trinidad Lake Asphalt (TLA) resulted in a general decrease in the elasticity of the blends indicated by an increase in δ
The effect of increasing the concentration of the UFO additive in Trinidad Petroleum Bitumen (TPB) resulted in a significant decrease in δ at the 6% UFO level indicating a superior elastic UFO blend
Summary
Frying oil is vegetable and animal oil that is used to fry food at high temperatures by the food industry, restaurants/food service establishments, and homes. The remaining 70% of the consumed edible oil are utilized by residential households that are not required to have disposal facilities such as oil separators, grease traps, waste water sumps, or have their used cooking oil collected by recycling or treatment and disposal companies This allows a significant quantity of UFO to be disposed of down the sink and drain, onto the ground, and into the garbage. Integrating UFO into the food chain through animal feed, can be a potential cause of human health problems as there is some evidence that highly oxidized fats formed during frying where oils are exposed to high temperatures in the presence of atmospheric oxygen, may have carcinogenic properties (Chang and Peterson 1978, Azpilicueta and Remirez 1991, Costa Neto et al 2000, Panadare and Rathod 2015). While pre-treatment for the UFO to be converted to biodiesel may not be expensive, the cost of converting a diesel engine to run on UFO can cost up to TT$15000.00 (Trinidad and Tobago Newsday 2010), which may be a deterrent for citizens/individuals
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