Waste Lubricating Research Articles

Optimization of waste lubricating oil regeneration using acid‐clay process

AbstractWaste lubricating oil is non‐biodegradable materials. It is released into the environment and its disposal has become a global environmental issue due to its impact on all life aspects. The production of waste lubricating oil has recently increased rapidly. The aim of this work is to recover, optimize oil production process from waste lubricating oil. This was investigated using the acid‐clay process. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) approach was used to optimize the desludging reaction. The studied parameters were acid to oil ratio, contact time, temperature. The mixing ratio of acid to waste oil were selected in the range of 1:10 to 2:10 (v/v). Reaction time was in the range of 60–120 min. The predicted maximum viscosity index of 117.54 was obtained at the temperature of 40°C, 20% acid to oil ratio, and reaction time of 60 min. The results were assessed experimentally using five runs and the average value of viscosity index was 111.76 with standard deviation of 0.739 and error 4.91%. The samples obtained at optimum conditions were characterized by measuring flash point at 180°C, carbon residue of 0.487, kinematic viscosity at 100°C of 17cSt, the water content of 0.01%, ash content of 0.02%. Viscosity index of was found in complies with the Egyptian standards.

Enhanced syngas production from waste lubricant oil reforming with transition metal catalysts

Waste lubricant oil (WLO) which is a spent oil from vehicles, and machinery is often incinerated or landfilled, leading to environmental pollution and heavy metal-contaminations. At the same time WLO can converted to synthesis gas using steam reforming. In this study, catalytic steam reforming of WLO was performed in a micro fixed bed reactor at atmospheric pressure. Ni and Fe metals were loaded in a ratio of 5% and 10% on dolomite and olivine catalysts through impregnation method. The effects of equivalent ratio (ER) and metal (Ni and Fe) loadings on dolomite and olivine supported catalysts were investigated. Carbon-hydrogen conversions were significantly affected by ER with the optimum data at 0.88, which resulted in low CH4, and high H2 and CO. Nonetheless, the 5%Ni/dolomite exhibited superior overall activity with the highest overall conversion and hydrogen yield. In this case, hydrogen and carbon conversions were 65.71% and 66.38%, respectively, while H2 to CO molar ratio was 1.05 and the lower heating value was 6.76 MJ/m3. Hence, this suggests that the surface-active site of Ni on dolomite has high activity for C–C cleavage and water gas shift reaction. The conversion to H2 and CO was improved through methane and hydrocarbon steam reforming on the catalyst surface. Catalytic reforming of WLO not only enhanced synthesis gas generation which can be readily used as energy, a partial source of H2 or chemical feedstock but also as an appealing, sustainable, and economical waste management alternative.

Interaction of fuel spray and air swirl on the combustion of residue oils

Effervescent atomization technology was applied in Waste Lubricant Oils (WLO) combustion. The tests were conducted in a 150 kW prototype boiler with a horizontally oriented cylindrical shape combustion chamber in which the combustion process was studied in terms of the interaction between a swirling air flow and fuel spray pattern. The combustion performance was assessed by continuously monitoring gaseous emissions, particularly carbon monoxide (CO) emission. Two different air feeding strategies were tested, varying in swirl number and six different configurations of the injection nozzle orifice. Three nozzles had a single orifice varying in diameter and discharge end geometry, and the others had three divergent orifice arrangement varying in cone angle and diameter. At the same time, the gas-to-liquid ratio (GLR) of the effervescent atomizer was also investigated, allowing to draw important illations about its influence on the combustion efficiency. The results show that the use of effervescent atomizers allows to burn of WLO, with CO emissions as low as 15 ppm at 8% of oxygen (O2) when using a three orifice of 1 mm with 15° of cone angle nozzle. This result was achieved by applying high-intensity combustion air flow swirl. However, the one orifice nozzles with penetrant spray pattern combined with low swirl intensity air flow also produced satisfactory results. With CO emissions of 27 ppm at 8% of O2 with a 1.2 mm single orifice nozzle. Furthermore, it was also demonstrated that the increment of the GLR in a range between 0.25 and 0.35 can be responsible for the reduction of 40 to 50% of the CO emissions when burning WLO.

Phytotreatment of water contaminated with waste lubricating oil using Pistia stratiotes

ABSTRACT Auto-mechanic service workshops in Nigeria tend to spill waste lubricating oil into the soil. The waste lubricating oil is washed into nearby streams by runoff leading to water pollution. The current study is aimed at assessing the performance and response of P. stratiotes in the remediation of water contaminated with waste lubricating oil. The contaminated water used for this study is a product of an artificial spillage of surface water and different volumes (30, 60, 90, 120 and 150 mL) of waste lubricating oil. The reduction efficiency, biotranslocation, bioconcentration factor, relative growth rate and the enzymatic and non-enzymatic response of P. stratiotes were determined. The results show that the efficiency of P. stratiotes in improving the quality of the contaminated water increases with an increase in the retention time of P. stratiotes but decreases with an increase in the volume of used lubricating oil. The result also shows an increase in the growth rate of P. stratiotes with increasing retention time but a decrease with an increased volume of used engine oil. The study also shows that P. stratiotes can counteract any effect induced by the pollutants in the contaminated water through antioxidant and non-antioxidant responses.

Comparative scenario-based LCA of renewable energy technologies focused on the end-of-life evaluation

In this article, a comparison was made between the environmental performance of three existing renewable energy systems, namely a photovoltaic, a wind, and a geothermal power plant; particularly, this study is focused on the end-of-life stage. More specifically, a scenario-based Life Cycle Assessment model was developed. It returns a wide range of possible results expressing the eco-profile of the analysed systems; moreover, the interpretation of the results allows pointing out the main priorities to be implemented in a sustainable end-of-life strategy. According to the results, the photovoltaic system can benefit from recycling most in comparison to the other systems, also because the disposal and decommissioning do not determine a large environmental burden. More specifically, the recovery of secondary metals from the structures of the solar arrays and the materials composing the photovoltaic modules (including the metals contained inside the panels) is particularly effective to improve the environmental performance of the system. Concerning the wind farm, the decommissioning operations of the installation site (i.e. the removal and transportation of asphalt, cement and gravel) turn out to be critical for several environmental indicators, as well as the combustion of waste lubricating oil; however, the recovery of metals and construction materials can compensate such environmental issues. The eco-profile of the geothermal system is slightly affected by the end-of-life operations, whether the disposal and the recycling processes. Indeed, the direct emission of pollutants and the consumption of reactants, which are not recycled, represent the main environmental issues. Based on a single score, if the disposal is selected as an end-of-life scenario, the photovoltaic system results as the most impacting system, followed by geothermal and wind. Differently, in case all materials are recycled, the environmental burden of the photovoltaic system assumes intermediate values compared to the wind and geothermal systems.

Study on Spent Lubricating Oil from Catalytic Cracking of Al/SO42-/AL-MCM-41 Molecular Sieve

The waste lubricating oil will cause great harm to the natural environment if it is discarded randomly or handled improperly. Catalytic cracking is the main technology for regenerating waste lubricating oil into fuel oil. The molecular sieve Al/SO42-/Al-MCM-41 was prepared by introducing metal Al atoms into the molecular skeleton of MCM-41 and then modifying it with Al2(SO4)3. The samples in the preparation process were characterized and analyzed by TG, FTIR, XRD, N2 adsorption desorption and other test techniques. The effects of reaction temperature and the amount of catalyst on catalytic cracking of used lubricating oil were studied. The results show that: The existence of large pores in the catalyst is conducive to the entry of waste lubricating oil molecules into the pores, so that the surface active sites of the catalyst can be fully utilized. When the silicon aluminum ratio is 1:0.02 and the calcination temperature is 600 °C, the catalyst has the highest activity. When the reaction temperature is 400°C, the reaction pressure is 0.01 MPa, the stirring speed is 200 rpm, and the amount of catalyst is 2.8 g. The yield of gas product is 1.11%, the yield of liquid product is 87.02%.

Evaluation of the techno-economic and environmental performance of all-component recycling process for waste lubricating oil

Conventional recycling processes cannot recycle the residual lubricating base oil contained in waste lubricating oil. Thus, an all-component recycling process was proposed to recover both the distillate and residual lubricating base oil. Here, we evaluate the techno-economic and environmental performance of this process. Several economic factors were considered and a sensitivity analysis of net incomes was conducted, and 13 environmental impact categories were included in a life cycle assessment (LCA) of the environmental performance. The effects of varying the transportation distance and fuel on the environmental impacts were discussed. The all-component process had a considerable economic benefit and strength anti-risk capability of the project. The total capital and production costs of the all-component process for 0.1 million ton/yr waste lubricating oil was around 50.8 MUSD and 651.9 USD per ton, respectively. The market price of base oil was the most important factor in the net income. The LCA results indicated that the all-component recycling process could be an advanced environmentally friendly recovery process. The global warming potential and primary energy demand were the most important environmental impacts with values of 425.6 kg-eq. CO2/ton waste lubricating oil and 2911.8 MJ, respectively. The variation of transportation distance resulted in slight changes in all environmental impact categories except water use.

Recycling of waste lubricating oil using ultra filtration membrane and modeling and prediction of its rheological behavior using Gauss-Newton algorithm

In this research, ultrafiltration membrane made of Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) was employed to recover the lubricating oil from the waste oil in tandem with other treatment methods. FESEM was also used to analyze the structure of the membrane. The resultant recycled oil was monitored with Rheometer, FTIR and UV Spectrometer and it was found that the method successfully removed ˃90% of contaminants and heavy metals from the waste oil and improved the properties of the oil. The proposed method proved to be very economical and gave very promising results to reclaim the waste engine oil that can be re-used for various purposes. Also, the rheological behavior of engine oil is studied by a proposed mathematical model. Given that the suggested model was non-linear, the Gauss-Newton (GN) algorithm was employed to determine the ideal values for the model parameters. The experimental results obtained for virgin, waste and recycled lubricating oils from rheometer were used for validation of the model. The proposed model was compared with Reynold’s exponential model based on statistical methods (co-efficient of determination (R2) and mean square error (MSE)). It was found that that the proposed model can predict the change in viscosity with temperature with very high degree of accuracy (>99%).

Lead (Pb) Reduction Efficiency in Used Lubricating Oil in Ship Using The Acid Clay Treatment Method: Perspective of Environmental Pollution Control at Paotere Port, South Sulawesi, Indonesia

The number of watercrafts in the sea will have an impact on the amount of waste lubricant oil that is discharged into the sea, which ultimately results in pollution. The increasing level of hazardous and toxic materials (B3 waste) is concerned to have a wider impact on public health and environment quality. One of the B3 wastes that requires special handling due to its high quantities is used lubricating oil. Utilization and processing of waste lubricant oil discharged from the ship is an alternative that can be applied to reach efficient consumption of petroleum which is shrinking from year to year. Therefore, we need a processing method that can reduce the pollutants generated from the waste, one of which is the Acid Clay Treatment method. This treatment aims to determine the best conditions for reducing heave metal lead (Pb) through Acid Clay Treatment method and to assess the decrease in Pb concentration contained in used lubricating oil from ship. The adsorbent used was clay that has been activated with sulphuric acid. The processing of used lubricating oil was carried out using three variations, including adsorbent concentration, contact time, and acidity (pH). The test results of used oil lubricating oil processing were 15 gram of adsorbent concentration, 90 minutes of contact time, and pH 4. The Pb reduction efficiency obtained from Acid Clay Treatment method in the best conditions was 53.72%.

The Effect of Metal Impregnation Of Fe Cu And Co on Surface Area of ZSM-5 Catalyst Analyzed Using Surface Area Analyzer (AAS)

The number of watercrafts in the sea will have an impact on the amount of waste lubricant oil that is discharged into the sea, which ultimately results in pollution. The increasing level of hazardous and toxic materials (B3 waste) is concerned to have a wider impact on public health and environment quality. One of the B3 wastes that requires special handling due to its high quantities is used lubricating oil. Utilization and processing of waste lubricant oil discharged from the ship is an alternative that can be applied to reach efficient consumption of petroleum which is shrinking from year to year. Therefore, we need a processing method that can reduce the pollutants generated from the waste, one of which is the Acid Clay Treatment method. This treatment aims to determine the best conditions for reducing heave metal lead (Pb) through Acid Clay Treatment method and to assess the decrease in Pb concentration contained in used lubricating oil from ship. The adsorbent used was clay that has been activated with sulphuric acid. The processing of used lubricating oil was carried out using three variations, including adsorbent concentration, contact time, and acidity (pH). The test results of used oil lubricating oil processing were 15 gram of adsorbent concentration, 90 minutes of contact time, and pH 4. The Pb reduction efficiency obtained from Acid Clay Treatment method in the best conditions was 53.72%.

Experimental investigation of heat transfer characteristics of steam generator with circular-ring turbulators

Heat transfer has been improved by creating turbulence in the fluid flow of heat exchangers through introducing various techniques. The present study investigated the heat transfer characteristics of steam generator with circular-ring tabulators with an inclination angle of 45° and a blocked ratio (BR) of 0.20 mm. The length ratios (LR) of 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%, pitch ratios (PR) of 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0 and water flow rates of 12, 24 and 36 l/h were studied. The heat source used waste lubricating oil as fuel to produce steam. The results showed that the heat exchanger with circular-ring inserts provided a higher steam rate than that of a smooth tube by 6.88–10.35%, vapor quality (x) by 0.21–0.92, heat transfer by 1.27–1.55 times and the thermal efficiency by 0.46–0.68 depending on the PR, LR and FR. The optimum insert ratio was LR = 50% while 75% and 100% were not significantly different. The circular-ring inserts changed the flow behavior to turbulent flow. This increased the surface area, causing boundary layer interruptions leading to more heat exchange on the tube surface.

Synergistic effect of hydrogen and waste lubricating oil on the performance and emissions of a compression ignition engine

The demand for energy is increasing every year. For a long time, fossil fuels have been used to satiate this energy demand. However, using hydrocarbon-based fossil fuels has led to an enormous rise of carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere resulting in global warming. It is therefore necessary to look for alternatives to fossil fuels. The research carried out till date have shown biomass and waste-derived fuels as plausible alternatives to fossil fuels. The biomass feedstock includes jatropha oil, Karanja oil, cottonseed oil, and hemp oil among others and wastes include used cooking oil, used engine oil, used tire and used plastics etc. In this study, the authors aim to explore waste lubrication oil as a fuel for the diesel engine. The used lubrication oil was pyrolyzed and diesel-like fuel with 80% conversion efficiency was obtained. A blend of the fuel and diesel in the ratio of 80:20 on volume basis was prepared. Engine experiments at various load conditions was carried out with the blend. As compared to diesel, a 2% increase in thermal efficiency, 6.3%, 16.1% and 13.6% decrease in smoke, CO and HC emissions & 3.2% and 1.8% increase in NOx and CO2 emission were observed at full load with the blend. With an aim to further improve the engine performance and reduce the overall emissions from the engine exhaust, a zero-carbon fuel namely gaseous hydrogen was inducted in the intake manifold. The flow rate of hydrogen was varied from 3 to 12 Litres per minute (LPM). As compared to diesel, at maximum hydrogen flow rate the thermal efficiency increased by 12.2%. HC, CO and smoke emissions decreased by 42.4%, 51.6% and 16.8%, whereas NOx emissions increased by 22%. The study shows that the combination of pyrolyzed waste lubricant and hydrogen were found to be suitable as a fuel for an unmodified diesel engine. Such fuel combination can be used for stationary applications such as power backups.

A Federated Classification Approach of Waste Lubricant Oils in Geographically Distributed Laboratories

Decision making and operational management of multiple identical units, equipment, or plants (sources) that are geographically distributed are becoming increasingly common. Instead of developing a classifier for each source, with much less data and representativeness of the entire population, this work presents a unique centralized classifier using a federated approach. The centralized classifier can take into account all data collected from multiple distributed sources and accommodate their local and specific data structures and correlation patterns. The federated approach has the built-in capability of expansion, allowing for the inclusion of more sources, without the need for retraining. Therefore, new sources may immediately benefit from the existing unified classification model as soon as they are “connected,” which only requires a projection operation. The proposed federated approach is applied to a real case study of predicting an important property (coagulation) of waste lubricant oil (WLO) in several locations of the recovery network. The coagulation behavior determines if WLO can be regenerated and used to produce again base oil. Fourier transform infrared spectra are collected at different sources (laboratories) and combined using the federated framework, leading to high classification accuracy and a more generalizable model.

Paving a way toward circular economy for oil and gas industry: A conceptual modelling of re-refining process through solvent extraction and hydrofinishing pathway

The oil and gas (O&G) industry has recently faced market headwinds due to high environmental impacts generated. Therefore, this study proposes to develop a circular economy (CE) model for the O&G industry by incorporating a re-refining process. A re-refining process based on an integrated solvent extraction and hydrotreatment unit is introduced as a media to re-valorize the waste lubricating oil (WLO) generated from crude oil. The proposed re-refining process is simulated and optimized using Aspen Plus V10 with integration into the CE model. In the CE model, 80% of the WLO is recovered to replace the portion of high-cost crude oil needed in the conventional linear economy (LE) model. Sensitivity analysis shows that the optimum re-refining process uses solvent mixture of 35% n-hexane/35% n-butanol/30% MEK. The optimum specifications are solvent extraction temperature at 25 °C, solvent to oil ratio of 3:1, hydrofinishing temperature at 270 °C and hydrofinishing pressure at 30 bar. In comparison to the LE model, the CE model achieves 22.67% lower overall annualized cost (OAC), which demonstrates the financial viability of the CE model.

Evaluation of combustion characteristics of fuel derived from the waste lubricating oil with n-pentanol additives in diesel engine

An experiment is performed with three blends made up of pyrolysis waste engine oil (PWEO), n-pentanol, and diesel. This research study provides the solution to waste engine oil as alternate fuel to diesel. Pyrolysis waste engine oil is extracted from waste engine oil by the pyrolysis distillation method. Wherein zeolite, sodium carbonate (Na2Co3) and lime (CaO) are used as catalysts. From the experimental results the blend having the volume percentage of 65% of diesel, 25% of pyrolysis waste engine oil and 10% of n-pentanol showed better performance compared to the other blends and pure diesel, therefore the brake thermal efficiency of this blend had noticed a decrease of about 1% compared to pure diesel at full load and the NOX, CO, HC and CO2 emissions were found to be 20%, 10%, 15% and 10% lower than that of pure diesel at full load.

Synthesis of hydroxyl ether based biolubricant from poultry waste and to evaluate the friction performance with titania nanoparticles

Low-cost chicken waste fat, with a high content of palmitic acid (saturated fatty acid) and oleic acid (unsaturated fatty acid) was used for biolubricant production. The effects of different reaction parameters on the fat transesterification reaction using potassium hydroxide to form fatty acid methyl esters were investigated. In this study, the methyl esters from chicken waste fat were chemically modified to produce hydroxyl ethers (biolubricants) through epoxidation, followed by the ring-opening reaction of the epoxides with isoamyl alcohol in the molar ratio of 3:1 (alcohol:methyl esters) using the acid catalyst p-toluene sulfonic acid. The biolubricant obtained after the ring-opening of the methyl epoxides exhibited higher oxidative stability (OS) (18 h) than that of the biodiesel (3.85 h). The viscosity index of the biolubricant was found to be 295.32. The tribological performance of the biolubricant was enhanced by the addition of TiO2 (0.05% w/v). The biolubricant with 0.05% TiO2 led to a 25% reduction in friction coefficient and also enhanced the viscosity by 1.1-fold. Thus, TiO2 is suggested as a good antifriction property enhancer and viscosity modifier for the chicken waste lubricant. In summary, the chicken waste fat can be considered a feasible alternative to formulate biolubricants that match the physicochemical and low-temperature properties of commercial hydraulic oils.

Chemical Conversion of Fischer–Tropsch Waxes and Plastic Waste Pyrolysis Condensate to Lubricating Oil and Potential Steam Cracker Feedstocks

The global economy and its production chains must move away from petroleum-based products, to achieve this goal, alternative carbon feedstocks need to be established. One area of concern is sustainable production of synthetic lubricants. A lubricating oil can be described as a high boiling point (>340 °C) liquid with solidification at least below room temperature. Historically, many lubricants have been produced from petroleum waxes via solvent or catalytic dewaxing. In this study, catalytic dewaxing was applied to potential climate neutral feedstocks. One lubricant was produced via Fischer–Tropsch (FT) synthesis and the other lubricant resulted from low temperature pyrolysis of agricultural waste plastics. The waxes were chosen because they each represented a sustainable alternative towards petroleum, i.e., FT waxes are contrivable from biomass and CO2 by means of gasification and Power-to-X technology. The pyrolysis of plastic is a promising process to complement existing recycling processes and to reduce environmental pollution. Changes in cloud point, viscosity, and yield were investigated. A bifunctional zeolite catalyst (SAPO-11) loaded with 0.3 wt% platinum was used. The plastic waste lubricants showed lower cloud points and increased temperature stability as compared with lubricants from FT waxes. There was a special focus on the composition of the naphtha, which accumulated during cracking. While the plastic waste produced higher amounts of naphtha, its composition was quite similar to those from FT waxes, with the notable exception of a higher naphthene content.

Recycling of waste or crude lubricating oil by vacuum distillation to produce reusable lubricants and its economic viability evaluation

Recycling waste or crude lubricant oil is the best alternative to incineration. This article used the vacuum distillation method to recycle of waste lubricant oil. About 90% of lubricating oil was recovered from waste oil within the temperature range of 60-360 0C. Every measured property like density, viscosity, flash point, pour point, sulfur content, carbon residue, ash content, and water content were investigated and compared with fresh oil. Pour point was found not to improve through vacuum distillation but rather decreased. Similarly, vacuum distillation could not improve the viscosity and density of recycled material but rather decreased. Adding 2% EPDM, SPO ESPRENE V0141, and pellet form of rubber as additives increased those two properties significantly. Finally, 0.1% NaNO3 was also added as an antioxidant. So, lastly, it can be concluded that the vacuum distillation process can effectively recycle waste lubricant oil in an economical and environmentally friendly manner. J. Bangladesh Acad. Sci. 46(1); 19-29: June 2022

Bioconversion of waste lubricant oil by Achromobacter xylosoxidans PSA5 employing a Central Composite Design approach for enhanced biosurfactant production

A biosurfactant producing bacterial strain was isolated from oil-contaminated soils in Visakhapatnam, India and identified as Achromobacter xylosoxidans PSA5 by 16S rRNA sequencing. The Central Composite Design of Response Surface Methodology was deployed in the present study to ascertain the optimum conditions for producing biosurfactant from A. xylosoxidans PSA5. A temperature of 35°C, pH 7.0, 2.0% waste lubricant oil and a five-day incubation time were found to be optimal for biosurfactant production with a maximum emulsification index of 60.0%. Under optimum conditions, 4.46 g/L of the biosurfactant was produced which was 4.5 times higher than the yield obtained under unoptimized conditions. The kinetic study showed that biosurfactant production was growth-associated, signifying that biosurfactant is a primary metabolite. Partial characterization of the biosurfactant by thin-layer chromatographic analysis revealed that the putative biosurfactant was of glycolipid type.

Recovery of Spent Engine Oil via the Glacial Acetic Acid Treatment Method

This true experimental design research attempted to explore the process of regenerating base oil from waste lubricating oil via the acid-clay treatment process using 10, 15, and 20% acid-oil and 10, 15, and 20% clay-oil ratios. The rationale for choosing a true experimental design methodology was because the re-refining process required manipulation of the independent variables (acetic acid and bentonite clay) to determine the best acid-to-oil ratio as well as the optimum clay-oil ratio to draw credible results so that the investigation can be replicated and put into practice in Guyana.