Recycling of Automotive Lubricating Waste Oil and Its Quality Assessment for Environment-Friendly Use

Lubricating oils, which are formulated with a number of chemicals blended base oils provide products that last longer, keep machinery cleaner and allow the machinery to work better under severe operating conditions. However, the used oil-waste generated by the automobiles and other allied industries poses an environmental hazard. The motivation of the present research study was to study the merits and demerits of commonly applicable technique acid/clay for reclamation of waste oil. This process has been employed for many years as the premier type of re-refining in which concentrated sulfuric acid is introduced to dehydrate waste lubricating oil. An acidic sludge is produced which is treated with clay. In this study, the conventional process of reclamation of waste oil, which is acid/clay, has been reviewed in the light of recovered product quality and hazardous effects on the environment and human health. Forty samples, in which, waste oil (10), reclaimed oil (30) were collected from different blending and reclamation plants located in different areas of the Punjab Province and were compared with two stroke blended oil (10 samples). The samples were tested for kinematic viscosity at 40 and 100oC, Viscosity Index, Flash point, Sulfated Ash content, Copper Corrosion, Water content, Sediments and Color by following the standard ASTM Methods D-445, D-2270, D-92, D-482, D-130, D-95, D-473 and D-1500 (ASTM, 2002), respectively. According to the results, blended reclaimed (two stroke) oil samples were found up to the recommended standard test limits. On the other hand, waste oil and reclaimed oil samples were found above the maximum test limits of acid number and copper corrosion and were found below in flash point test limit. Waste oil samples were highly contaminated and adulterated with mud and water. Although no such standard criteria or parameters are available for comparison but analysis results showed a bad reflection and due to which only few tests like copper strip corrosion, water content, sediments and flash point were performed to understand the characteristics of the market available waste oil product. These results showed that product is not environment friendly and the processing method needs to be improved. More research is needed to find out atmospheric pollution due to burning or use of reclaimed and waste oil on human health especially from occupation health and safety perspective.