Basic Principles of Recycling Waste Plastic Lubricants into Boiler Oils and Marine Fuels

Abstract

The article presents the results of a study aimed at confirming the possibility of processing waste plastic lubricants - various types of boiler and motor fuels. This approach will allow for the disposal of hazardous industrial waste while simultaneously generating additional thermal and electrical energy and minimizing the negative impact on the environment. The direct use of waste plastic lubricants as boiler fuel, as well as the products of its thermal and thermocatalytic processing into compounded boiler and marine fuels, was investigated. It has been established that when burning used oils, compared to fuel oil of brand 100, a smaller amount of carbon (by 0.215-0.715 %), sulfur dioxide (by 17.9-20.24 %), nitrogen dioxide (by 1.43-5.39 %), carbon monoxide (by 1.41-5.77 %) and benzene (by 0.39×10-5÷0.46×10-5) is formed. When compounding fuel oil of brand 100, 25-40 % of the 200-350°C fraction obtained by thermal cracking of used plastic lubricants, it is possible to obtain a composite boiler fuel with a kinematic viscosity at 80°C of 50-85 mm2/s and a pour point of 10-25°C. By subjecting used greases to thermocatalytic cracking, it is possible to obtain a fraction with boiling points of 180(200)-360(380)°C, which, in accordance with ISO 8217:2017, is promising for the production of distillate marine fuels of grades DMA, DFA, DMZ, DFZ.