Used Oil – What Is It Good For? 0
It is quite common in this day and age for a lot of people to be familiar with the concept of recycling certain parts of their trash. Plastic bags, glass and paper to name but a few items can all be recycled with great success, improving the quality of the environment and amount of resources available to everyone.
This brings us onto the subject of used oil A lot of people can try and get rid of oil down sink holes, storm drains and even in rivers and lakes. Did you know that half a gallon of oil is able to contaminate five hundred thousand gallons of water?
Something that a lot of people are doing these days is recycling used waste oil. Most types of oil can be reused in one way or another, even if it is just to make a different kind of oil.
A prime example of this process of using one kind of spent oil to make another kind of oil is found in the motor segment. Here used oil is re-refined into kind of base oil so that it can continue its useful life as a general lubricating oil. Indeed the process of doing this is much akin to refining crude oil on the offshore rigs!
As well as being effectively totally recycled (apart from introduced contaminants and particles, all of the oil is reused), motor oil in particular is often packaged up and sent to power stations of different varieties, where it is burnt for fuel. The thought of setting light to something does not induce visions of cleanliness, but actually, the oil is totally burnt, therefore providing a clean source of energy – after all, it is being recycled!
Motor based products have been talked about here so far, however it is important not to discount used cooking oil. A lot of the time, fast food outlets and restaurants use literally gallons of oil a day and once it has been cooked in, they throw it out.
By filtering this oil, it can be reused to power a diesel engine, with no problems and a huge saving over paying for gas normally. Just think, if the used oil can be filtered (again to reduce contaminants) then there is nothing to stop someone from taking the used oil off the restaurant’s hands, which they normally have to pay a removal fee for, and use it to run their vehicle.
Just these two examples show how easy it is to recycle used oil in different ways and for different benefits. Above all, it is important to have the option of reusing this valuable resource, and to realize that just because it has been used before does not mean it cannot be used again!
