A Low Cost Environmentally Benign Waste Lubricant Recylcing/Rerefining Technology

Globally, over four billion gallons of spent lubricants are generated annually. Although spent lubricants can be considered a valuable renewable resource, less than 10% of the worldwide supply is actually re-refined into high quality lubricant basestocks. The remainder is typically burned as fuel or disposed of using even less environmentally friendly methods. Although stricter environmental regulation will continue to limit these disposal options, increasing the amount of re-refined lubricants beyond current worldwide levels will be difficult to achieve without incurring significant cost. The disadvantages of conventional re-refining technologies combine to simply render this technology useless outside of highly populated metropolitan areas where large quantities of spent lubricants are generated in a centralized location. Re-refining technology that can be employed on a small scale is required throughout most of the US but up until now has simply been unavailable. In response to the inadequacies of conventional solutions, Media and Process Technology, Inc. (M&P) has developed the LubriClear Process, an innovative technology that combines several M&P proprietary technologies into a hybrid recycling/re-refining process to deliver high quality base oils from spent lubricants at low cost in an environmentally benign manner. All of the barriers associated with widespread application of conventional distillation based technology are overcome. In this Phase I effort, we propose to establish the re-refinability and possible recyclability of spent lubricants generated by the Air Force using M&P technology.