Recycling of Waste Engine Oils Using Different Acids as Washing Agents

This paper addresses recycling of waste engine oils treated using by (acetic acid and formic acid). A recycling process was developed which eventually led to comparable results with some of the conventional methods. This gives the recycled oil the potential to be reused in cars’ engines after adding the required additives. The advantage of using the (acetic acid or formic acid) is that it does not react or only reacts slightly with base oils. The recycling process takes place at room temperature. It has been shown that base oils and oils’ additives are slightly affected by the acetic acid. Upon adding (acetic acid or formic acid) to the used oil, two layers were separated, a transparent dark red colored oil and a black dark sludge at the bottom of the container. The base oils resulting from other recycling methods were compared to the results of the fresh oil. The comparison showed that the recycled oil produced by acetic acid and formic acid treatment showed excellent results in the properties of the oil comparable to the fresh oil. Using volumetric ratio of 10:1 oil to acetic acid result in density 0.87 g/ml and this close to fresh oil mean while using ratio of 10:1 oil to formic acid result in viscosity 30 cp and this equivalent to fresh oil.