Re-refined Oil is Just as Good

Amid the rising costs of petroleum products like diesel, gasoline, lubricants and others, businessmen and governments alike are thinking of ways to manage the effects that the ordinary consumer will be experiencing.  Petroleum products are after all a vital component to industrialization and progress.  Some of the measures that were instituted were the finding of sources of alternative and renewable energy as fossil fuels are getting scarcer by the day thus making it the priority of governments. For those who want more information on alternative and renewable energy,  I will not elaborate on it anymore as I have just provided the link.

For this article I will be taking a second look on re-refined oil or lubricants.  Why a second look?  Well, you see, re-refining oil has been around before 1960 that a big chunk of the demand for lubricants was made using re-refined used oil.  Used oil is any oil refined from crude oil and has been used.  According to the US Department of Energy, the production for re-refined oil has steadily declined after 1960 because of the abundant supply of low-cost motor oil, there were no reliable tests available to help evaluate the quality of the re-refined oil, and the acid-clay re-refining technology used at that time posed environmental problems.  

All of these are things of the past.  Lubricants or motor oil are getting costlier because of the rising prices of the main ingredient, base oil.  New technologies in re-refinery and evaluation are also available nowadays that do not pose hazard to the environment.  Big lubricant companies are already setting their sights on recycled oil.  Valvoline has recently came out with its newest product, NextGen and this move will surely pave the way for other biggies to follow.

With re-refined oil, you get the same protection as a motor oil from virgin base oil would.  Lubricants are composed of 85-90% of base oil and the remaining 10-15% are additives that enhance the lubricity, viscosity, viscosity index and the overall quality of the lubricant. The base oil component of the lubricant doesn't wear out in time, it is the additives that wear out.  In George Gill's article Rerefining, Ready for Prime Time, he said that with the current hydro-treatment technology, re-refinery has greatly improved.  With the improvement comes better quality base oil and therefore, better quality used oil can be obtained.  

Though people from the First World are embracing this technology of re-refined oil, people from this part of the globe are slow to do so.  In the Philippines, Green and Natural Lubes Philippines Company is in the forefront in the marketing of lubricants made from recycled base oil or used oil and is one of the few doing so.

REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE