Used lubricating oil recovery process and treatment methods: A review

Used lubricating oil (ULO) is considered hazardous as it is able to cause pollution and affect the environment. The presence of degraded additives, contaminants, and by-products of degradation render ULO more toxic and harmful to health and environment than virgin base oils. Recovery of ULO generally comprises cleaning, drying, and adsorption in order to eliminate water, sludge, and impurities. As the ULO is one of the hazardous wastes generated in various industries, such as industrial and automotive, it should not be used or disposed of in ways that are harmful for the environment. Recovery of ULO carries out many advantages which includes lower environmental impact, higher energy saving and lower risks. The main objective of this paper was to thoroughly review various recovery process principles and treatment methods for ULO. Importance of ULO recycling and various techniques along with their limitations were also discussed. The significance of this study lies in reviewing the roles of adsorbent and adsorption reclamation processes of ULO and few promising adsorbents were earmarked for further study.

Re–Refining of Used Lube Oils and Sustainability

As petroleum products continue to be an inseparable part of our lives, so does the waste that is generated from these products, the prominent among them being the used lubricating oil. However, research shows that more than half of the used lube oil can be converted back to usable lubricant through the process of re–refining. This can certainly reduce the amount of waste oil in the environment and the need of crude oil extraction to a certain extent. As there are various different methods of re–refining, this work focused specifically on the method used widely in India, i.e., Vacuum distillation with Clay treatment. In this paper, the sustainability of the re–refining process was checked using the green chemistry principles and overall material balance of the process. Based on the assumptions made for the material balance, nearly 69.92% of lube oil base stock was obtained along with 11.13% fuel by - product and 12.14% residue, both of which have varied uses in the industry, thus producing additional profit.

Implementing an integrated maintenance management system for monitoring production lines: a case study for biscuit industry

PurposeThis study provides a unique integrated diagnosis system to investigate the causes of low productivity, profitability, machinery health conditions and wear severity of medium-size biscuit industry assets in Taiz, Yemen.Design/methodology/approachThe evaluation is based on an integrating of the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and oil-based maintenance (OBM) approaches. The data are collected using the company's operational records, interviews and observations, while the used lubricating oil samples are also collected from production lines' machineries. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) is used to study the wear debris particle features and wear mechanism. Different other analysis tools such as fishbone, 5 whys and Pareto charts are also used to investigate the root causes and plausible recovery solutions of machinery failures.FindingsThis study demonstrated that a large proportion of machinery failures and production loss are of management concerns. Also, this study inferred that the analysis of wear debris is unique and informative for determining machinery wear severity and useful life. Finally, the current conditions of production lines are clarified and suggestions to use a mixed preventive/predictive maintenance management approach are also elucidated.Originality/valueThis work implemented an integrated OEE/OBM diagnostic maintenance system to investigate the root causes of low productivity and machine failures in real production lines and suggested robust decisions on the maintenance duties.