CHARACTERIZATION AND REGENERATION OF WASTE INSULATING LUBRICANT

Collection of waste lubricants is a vital necessity for evident environmental and economical reasons [1]. The need for a better environment protection as prescribed by the Rio protocol in 1992 led many nations to strengthen the legislations and force the various consumers to collect, recycle or burn their oil wastes with two targeted main objectives : - Suppress or at least reduce the dangerous pollution levels - Develop and promote waste oil regeneration. In this viewpoint, we have started a study on waste insulating oils. In a first part, we have aimed at a better knowledge of both unused and waste oil namely by evaluating their respective chemical compositions and physicochemical properties as well as their stability at high temperatures. In a second part, from an economical standpoint, we have studied technological aspects of a regeneration process based on adsorption. Particularly, we have investigated the optimal operating conditions of a laboratory-scale regeneration apparatus which take account of both waste oil and adsorbent properties.