The creation of a sustainable technology to regenerate used lubricating oils is the objective of a project being developed by researchers at the University of Coimbra (UC), the institution announced today.
“The idea is to clean used oils through the use of supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) and reintroduce them into the life cycle”, said the research coordinator, Cecília Santos, in a statement sent to the Lusa agency by the Faculty of Science and Technology from the University of Coimbra (FCTUC).
The project “Regeneration of used lubricant oil by supercritical CO2 – a process towards circular economy and environmental health (NeWLOife)” was one of the winners of the fourth edition of the UC Interdisciplinary Scientific Research Seed Awards, being developed in partnership with the Society of Integrated Management of Used Lubricating Oils (Sogilub).
Using CO2 released by industrial installations, the FCTUC team aims to “reduce the high environmental impact of used lubricating oils and create a high quality product capable of being reintroduced into its useful life cycle”.
“Used lubricating oils are highly polluting, but they can also be a resource, as they are derived from petroleum. In other words, if we have the possibility of effectively regenerating what already exists instead of using new oil, it is naturally an added value”, argued Cecília Santos.
The use of CO2 as a solvent “not only has the potential to be a cleaner and more economical technology, without secondary products, but it can help capture carbon dioxide” from industrial facilities.
“We can achieve a negative footprint”, highlighted the researcher from the FCTUC Department of Chemistry.
The results already obtained “show that this technology can bring advantages on several levels, but in particular for the environment, when compared to existing ones”.
“Some studies are still underway regarding the chemical composition of the regenerated oil, but the next step is to optimize the process”, according to the statement.
“We are at the point in the project where we already have evidence that the process is viable and has a good performance. It is still necessary to optimize, improving the experimental conditions to obtain a greater quantity of oil with better quality”, said Cecília Santos.
