Used oil at Lube shops?

[AnarchyX]

What happens to it? We all hear about how extending the OCI not only saves money but also the environment, but does that mean the used oil just gets thrown away? I always thought it would somehow be recycled and used another way.

Anyone know?

 

[aquariuscsm]

I`ve heard it can be used to make asphault.

 

[StevieC]

As far as I know it gets sent to a processing plant that super-cleans it and refines it into other chemicals and some of it can end up back in another oil on the shelf.

 

[Steve S]

It is used in many ways, it is also burned as fuel oil .It is not wasted.

 

[Boomer]

Local shops here burn it as fuel in place of heating oil in the shop. requires a special furnace and the injector nozzle in the firebox has to be taken out and cleaned every week or so as deposits build up. These furnaces burn a mix of oil, ATF and gear oil. They actually do quite well. Several car dealers here in SE PA heat the entire shop area with these furnaces. They burn their own fluids from servicing customer's cars plus that brought in by DIYers who just want to get rid of their used fluids.

 

[Drew2000]

A growing portion is re-refined and re-additized back into engine lubricating oil. The Federal Govt, Military, USPS and other private fleet operators use recycled oil with good results.

http://www.epa.gov/epp/pubs/case/dlaoil.htm

Drew

 

[AlanRebod]

http://www.safety-kleen.com/products/OilProducts/Pages/EcoPower.aspx

 

[Bryanccfshr]

Hopefully most used oil is rerefind an not burned. Baseols are to valuable to burn.

 

[MGregoir]

It gets hauled away by disposal companies. Safety Kleen re-refines it to base stocks, and blends it into finished lubricants.

Safety Kleen sells a full lubricants line as America's Choice, which is required to be used by the federal government whenever practical and is intended for governmental fleet users. As well, they market it to private label marketers (such as Wal-Mart, who uses it as the Canadian market Supertech), and sell it as EcoPower where it is openly marketed as recycled. They take in 200 million gallons of used lubricants, and produce about 100 million gallons of re-refined base oil and finished lubes.

http://www.safety-kleen.com/products/OilProducts/Pages/EcoPower.aspx

http://www.firestonecompleteautocare.com/about/ecopower.jsp

Safety-Kleen also markets recycled coolant.

 

[BriantheBrain]

The Safety Kleen products are not too bad. This past summer, I worked on a state run golf course and all we use are the recycled products. Even though we don't do UOA's the engines seem to be clean and run well with up over 4000 hours.

 

[alreadygone]

I've been getting $ .45 per gallon for my used oil in 300 gallon lots. That's way more than it'd be worth as a heating fuel even if I had one of the $6000. plus furnaces.

Bob

 

[Bryanccfshr]

Time to change the batteries in this keboard

 

[TallPaul]

Maybe they screen the used oil and throw it into the more beater cars that come in?

 

[kingrob]

Originally Posted By: TallPaul
Maybe they screen the used oil and throw it into the more beater cars that come in?

Not an unlikely scenario! I worked for a crooked shop when I was younger. We used bulk 55 gal drums of Pennzoil. At least one quart of each used oil change went back into the fresh drums. It was the owners way of saving some pennies!

Sometimes, one of the mechanics had a habit of not bothering to change the oil on a car at all, he'd just wipe the filter off with a clean rag if the oil on the dipstick still looked clean.

 

[Nickdfresh]

The shop I worked at did indeed give it to a Canadian based oil company, Noco, and they used it as heating oil in their local refinery/storage facility...

 

[johnd]

The truck rental place I used to go to took all removed lubricants from their fleet, filtered and mixed 10% with incoming diesel. Seemed to work pretty well. They never had to pay disposal fees and it stretched their fuel bill 10%. This was 1992-1998 or thereabouts.

 

[Kestas]

I just talked to our Safety-Kleen guy. He said it's used for rerefining, cement kilns, and perhaps some other uses, depending on how good the used stuff is that they pick up.

 

[artificialist]

Originally Posted By: johnd
The truck rental place I used to go to took all removed lubricants from their fleet, filtered and mixed 10% with incoming diesel. Seemed to work pretty well. They never had to pay disposal fees and it stretched their fuel bill 10%. This was 1992-1998 or thereabouts.
That probably wasn't a bad idea then, but with soot traps, and EGR systems, it seems that the additives from the oil would quickly lead to serious deposit problems.

Also, I heard that the EPA sets limits on how much oil can be added to diesel fuel.

Cummins has a system to drain some oil into the diesel fuel... I guess that adding oil to fuel isn't such a bad idea.

 

[Bill in Utah]

Originally Posted By: Bryanccfshr
Time to change the batteries in this keboard
Sure blame the keyboard!

The oil is recycled so all is good. When we had the contact to have change our fleet vehicles oil, we used a re-cycled oil.

Now we go to Jiffy Lube. (cheaper)

Got to love the state.

Bill

 

[buster]

I drink it.