Waste lubricant treatment

Workers employed at facilities that manufacture or use hydrogen sulfide in the production process are especially prone to exposure. Such industries include the manufacture of rayon textiles, lubricants, pulp and paper, and sulfuric acid and inorganic sulfides. Workers in facilities where hydrogen sulfide is produced as a byproduct, such as farms with manure storage pits, petroleum or natural gas drilling operations, landfills, and waste-water treatment plants, may also be exposed to high levels. 

In terms of the lubricant, (i) is largely a matter for the equipment designer and builder. The specialist lubricant company is affected by (iii) and can affect (ii). The collection and treatment of waste lubricants will now be described and followed by consideration of the environmental impact of lubricants. Einally, the results of recent research into the impact of lost or consumed automotive engine oils will be described. 

Of the three basic methods of disposal of used lubricants, the most efficient in terms of energy conservation, in that it displaces an equivalent amount of oil, is the use of the material as a fuel or a fuel supplement. In heating processes where the fuel is supplied through a burner, some limited pre-treatment of the waste lubricants and blending with conventional fuels is necessary. 

Waste lubricating oils from vehicles can be processed to produce an acceptable recycled lubricating oil. Normally, this involves distillation and vacuum distillation to remove water and lighter hydrocarbon impurities, leaving some heavy residue that can be burned, purification by treatment with solvents such as methylethyl ketone, and hydrotreatment with H2 to eliminate unsaturated hydrocarbons and compounds containing O, N, or S. 

Maiu-cham degradation of polymers Sdssioning of linear polymers Method applied to convert waste polymer material into low molecular weight compounds. Typically, waste poly(tetrafluoro ethylene) is converted to a material applicable as lubricant. Degraded chitm/chitosan is used in different fields including medicine, pharmaceuticals, textile and paper industries, waste-water treatment... 

Petroleum. Apart from its use ia petrochemicals manufacture, there are a number of small, scattered uses of lime ia petroleum (qv) production. These are ia making red lime (drilling) muds, calcium-based lubricating grease, neutralization of organic sulfur compounds and waste acid effluents, water treatment ia water flooding (secondary oil recovery), and use of lime and pozzolans for cementing very deep oil wells. 

Acid treatment of lubricating oils produces acid-bearing wastes occurring as rinse waters, sludges, and discharges from sampling, leaks, and shutdowns. The waste streams are also high in dissolved and suspended solids, sulfates, sulfonates, and stable oil emulsions. 

If long-fibre cellulose is to be used as a nitration material then noils from combing machines or waste from a spinning mill are usually used. Such wastes are usually contaminated with lubricating oils and before the chemical treatment they should be... 

Spent acids are used where feasible to neutralize alkaline waste streams, or are neutralized with purchased lime, or caustic, and are then routed to the normal effluent treatment system for further cleanup before discharge [61]. Waste solids from refinery operations include such materials as spent clay from decolorization of lubricating oils or waxes, sand used as a catalyst support, filter aid, or filter base, and exhausted Claus catalysts (primarily ferric oxide on alumina). These are disposed of by landfilling by the majority of Canadian refineries. However, some use landfarming for disposal of these materials. One refinery recovers spent Claus catalysts for regeneration into new catalyst. 

Acid/clay Treatment. This was the original commercial process for reclamation of lubricant. The acid/clay process, such as the Meinken process, has the disadvantages that it generates large amounts of hazardous waste and cannot effectively remove the high concentrations of additives used in modern engine lubricant formulations. It is now superseded by other, newer, technologies. 

Another 25% of the selenium production in 1996 was used in inorganic pigments (principally as cadmium sulfoselenide used in plastics, paints, enamels, inks, mbber, and ceramics), and 10-15% of selenium is used in a broad spectrum of applications including accelerators and vulcanizing agents in mbber production, in stainless steel, and as selenides of refractory metals for use in lubricants. Some of these products may end up as disposed waste. Medical and pharmaceutical uses such as in topical preparations for treatment of dandmff, for... 

Waste water prevention and treatment In many cases, waste water can be prevented or minimised by taking in-process measures. Waste water that cannot be prevented, will contain mineral or metal dust, amines, suphates, oil or lubricants, depending on its source within the process. The applicable treatment techniques differ for each of these compounds. 

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