Engine Oil

Used Oil and Oil Filters

An average car utilizes up to five quarts of engine oil, which has to be replaced approximately three or four times per year. Most of these changes are performed at service stations, where worn oil and filters are generally collected for different uses. A primary use for used engine oil is to re-refine it into a base stock for lubricating oil. This process is very similar to the refining of crude oil. According to the American Petroleum Institute, lubricating oil does not wear out, it simply becomes dirty as it does its job. Once water and contaminants are removed from used oil, it is returned to a full and useful life as re-refined base oil. The claimed result is that the re-refined oil is of as high a quality as a virgin oil product. Other sources assert that only 2.5 quarts of re-refined lubricating oil can be produced from one gallon of used oil.

A secondary use of the used oil is to burn it for energy production. Some used oil is sent to power plants or cement kilns to be burned as fuel. On a smaller scale, small quantities of used oil are burned in specially designed heaters to provide heating for small businesses.

An average car requires up to five quarts of engine oil to run properly, which should be replaced three or four times a year. Engine oil can be repeatedly refined as a base stock for lubricating oil, in a process similar to crude oil refinement.

Each year, the United States generates 425 million used automotive oil filters containing 160,000 tons of iron units and 18 million gallons of oil, since used oil filters can contain more than 45 percent used motor oil in weight when removed from the vehicle. Recycling all the filters sold annually in the United States would result in the recovery of about 160,000 tons of steel, or enough steel to make 16 new stadiums the size of Atlanta's Turner Stadium. Nonetheless, in the United States, less than 60 percent of used oil and filters are recycled.

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