ABSTRACT

Recycling of waste lubricant oil has always been a major issue to the world economy at large, apart from the health issues and the effect on aquatic life. Billions of dollars are spent annually to solve the issues of waste oil pollution. Hence that gave us the need and idea to develop a machine that can recycle this waste lubricating oil that is normally disposed of.

In the course of developing a machine, we looked at various concepts that are already been in used. Some of them include the conventional methods such as acid/clay treatment, vacuum distillation, hydrogenation. The advantages and disadvantages of the various methods were looked at, ranging from being cheap to execute and no too much technical skills needed, to being too costly to executed and not giving back pure product. Combined processes and modern technology in used were also looked at, before making the decision to use the atmospheric distillation method.

Atmospheric distillation of waste lubricant oil as the name implies, involves the thermal cracking and heating of the waste lubricating oil under atmospheric pressure and conditions. A machine was designed and fabricated for this purposes. It is made up of three components each carrying out different purposes. Some of the components include the reactor, the condenser, the fuel reservoir, the air blower and so on.

These various components were brought together to make a waste lubricant recycling machine. It is easy to use and not quite expensive to produce. A bulk production of this machine can go a long was to reduce the effect of waste oil disposal on the land surfaces and the economy at large.