Hydrogen production from used lubricating oils

Used lubricating oils (tube oils) are generated throughout the year and collected in central locations in many communities. Disposing tube oil in an improper manner contaminates environment to a great degree. Used lube oil can be valuable as a re-refined lubricant or as an energy source. Lube oil is a complex mixture of aliphatic and polycyclic hydrocarbons formulated to withstand high service temperatures in internal combustion engines. Both synthetic and mineral oils contain a high concentration of hydrogen (about 13-14 wt%). At the Florida Solar Energy Center, we have developed a process that converts tube oils to hydrogen and other valuable low molecular weight hydrocarbons. The lube oil reformation experiments were carried out using several commercially available dehydrogenation catalysts at a range of reactor temperatures and pressures, residence times and steam to carbon ratios. In this paper, the data obtained to date and the results are presented and discussed. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.