Pumped up

By: Jo-Rosie Haffenden Click author's name for more of his/her articles

Oil is running out and environmentalists have us all over a barrel when it comes to pledging allegiance to responsible fuel consumption; but when it comes to reusing our black gold can recycling help or is it that the only way is down…?

Oil is a primary energy resource in developed countries but it is limited. Thanks to advancements in technology we can now access pockets which were previously considered inaccessible; however, this does not solve the problem that our oil supply itself is running out.

In 1996 there were 1,047,200 million barrels of proven crude oil reserves but fewer and fewer major new oil fields are being discovered. In 2000 geologists helped locate 16 new fields but this figure fell to nine in 2001 and was reduced right down to one in 2005. In 2008 experts calculate that the world currently burns more than 80 million barrels of oil every day. This means by 2016 it is estimated that this figure will rise to around 100 million. With this crisis now actively affecting the cost of living and the rise in energy costs causing business to slow right down until a recession finally hits; it is time we dig for a real solution and fight irresponsible use of oil. But what is the solution and how can we help fight the fuel crisis?

In July Thomas Beatie was the first man to have a baby; Dubai opens its proverbial doors to the first man-made snorkelling lagoon later this year; and last week saw the birth of the first commercially successful genetically cloned dog. So if scientist can do all that - why cant they just recreate oil?

The trouble is that no one knows precisely how oil is formed. The most popular theory is that millions of marine plants and animals bodies, especially plankton, after floating to the bottom of the ocean, are compressed by heavy layers of sedimentary rocks. Crude oil and gas is then slowly formed over thousands and thousands of years under the pressure of these rocks and moves through the layers until it becomes captured in non-porous rocks which form oil pockets. This process is not something which can be sped up or artificially created and we have been using up our oil at a faster rate than this process can produce it.

So if we can’t recreate fuel, can we recycle it – and how do can we ensure the fuel we do have is used wisely?

Many huge oil and environmental services are doing a lot more behind the scenes than people think. Adler and Allan, a national oil and environmental services group, have just drilled a quarter of a million pounds into their Manchester Waste Treatment Facility. Alan Scrafton, Group Sales & Marketing Manager at Adler and Allan explains: “With recent investment, the Manchester facility now has the capability to recover much higher levels of oil from waste oils brought in. They can treat high volumes of waste oils (over 300k litres) and use some of the latest technology to do this. This all gives greater capacity and faster turnaround for the oil recovery process”. This investment goes towards treating and recovering more oily waste for reuse. That’s right, oil recycling.

Motor oil is one example where oil can be reused and reused again and again: Motor oil picks up lots of added components from the engine wear such as iron, steel, copper, lead and zinc. Because of these additions, used oil disposal can actually do more eco-damage than crude oil pollution. In the United States, the population pollutes the environment with up to 30 times the amount of oil spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster! The long term and short terms effects of irresponsible motor oil disposal can be fatal. Studies have indicated that it takes up to 22 years for aquatic marine life to recover from an oil spillage and one gallon of used oil can contaminate one million gallons of water.

The economical and environmentally friendly way to dispose of oil – is to recycle. The energy saved by recycling oil also causes a rise in our levels of self sufficiency and means that we don’t have to collect as much from other countries.

There are a number of different steps taken to recycle waste oil into reusable oil after it has been collected. First, the oil goes to an oil recovery site. These sites treat all kinds of waste including vegetable oil, mineral oil and mixed fuels too. They ensure that the real waste can be disposed responsibly and that anything that can be reused is reused.

The recovery experts then separate the uncontaminated oil and slowly begin heating it. Water is separated from the oil in this part of the process and distributed to water waste treatment centres. The oil is then filtered and sold off to different industries for reuse. Often this oil goes to high temperature furnaces and boilers.

Used oil can also then be re-refined in a way similar way to the initial refining of the virgin oil. Recycled oil can be just as useful as virgin oil too and can be used for diesel fuel; high and low quality lubricants; and heavy fuel oils used in industrial burners. Motor oil in particular is truly reusable and can be used over and over again as this form of used oil can be recycled into a base for new motor oil.

Steve Chalupka, Technical Manager at Adler and Allan describes some environmental benefits that oil recycling has: “Consider that it takes only one litre of oil to contaminate one million litres of water and a single car engine oil change produces 4 to 5 litres of used oil. Disposing of used oil the wrong way has the potential to pollute land, water and infrastructure, so we need to recover and recycle as much of it as possible with benefits to the environment paramount in this task”.

So, it is not all about the dirty looks at the Tesco tills when they ask you, “Do you want a bag with that?” – recycling is happening on a far larger scale at a multibillion pound level. The fuel crisis is certainly upon us, with the price of petrol in the UK more than doubling in the past 20 years and we now pay around 98p for a single litre of petrol. But the future does look brighter with companies like Adler and Allan pushing for more responsible oil waste and working hard to ensure oil is reused within the industry properly.

Unfortunately, there is not much of a market for the reused oil at present. The public has yet to be sufficiently educated about the need for this process, or the invaluable consequences of it. A lot of oil companies won’t take on reused oil due to the public’s misperception of a reduced quality not realising that this could be some thing that could save the planet – or at least help it live longer.

The ever increasing legislative and regulatory framework in which many oil and environmental services operate is driving the need for investment, as Steve Chalupka explains: “An organisation which is sensitive and in tune with corporate and customer needs, whilst at the same time maintaining a fundamental focus on environmental issues, has to embrace new technologies and systems of operation to achieve this. Adler and Allan's investment in new plant and equipment for oil recovery and re-use contributes to accomplishing these aims on every level and we hope others will follow our lead”.

Article Source: ABC Article Directory

About The Author: Jo-Rosie is writing on behalf Adler and Allan, one of the UK’s leading oil sector services companies and environmental recovery services. Adler and Allen has expanded to become one of the UK’s key industrial service providers, with a nationwide customer base and world-leading capabilities.