Challenges of Waste Oil Removal
Used motor oil is an inescapable by-product of the transportation and automotive industry. As it accumulates, proper collection, storage, and disposal of waste oil can be time consuming and expensive. Used-oil collectors may buy waste oil from car-repair shops and auto-parts stores so that it can be re-refined into a fresh supply of lubricants. However, increasingly, collectors are charging customers to remove their waste oil.
Removing waste oil adds an unnecessary cost to your bottom line.
Valuable Energy In Waste Oil
Why pay someone to remove your waste oil just to turn around and buy natural gas, electricity, or propane to heat your building? Even if collectors are paying for your used oil, it’s rarely enough to cover your heating-fuel expenses.
Used oil contains valuable energy that can be used to produce the heat necessary to keep your facility comfortable and productive.
A Green Solution for Waste Oil
You can utilize the valuable energy in your waste oil with a waste-oil heater or boiler. These machines have come a long way from their humble beginnings of DIY drip fires and fuel-soaked rags. The most-advanced modern waste-oil heaters and boilers require minimal maintenance and ZERO adjustments.
While re-refining used oil allows for the repeated recycling of some of it, the process involves a complex network of collection logistics. It also does not directly pass the value to the generators of waste oil (especially if they have to pay for removal). Additionally, the system does not give businesses an incentive to responsibly manage their used oil. Many of them dispose of it improperly, or even dump it, contaminating soil and groundwater. These same businesses are likely paying heating bills that could be offset or eliminated by recycling that waste oil for heat.
In fact, on-site recycling of used oil for heat reduces the chances of unintentional oil spills while reducing road miles of collection trucks and offsetting the demand for other heating fuels.
All of this adds up to a very green solution for waste oil.
The Dollar Value of Waste Oil
One gallon of used oil contains a similar amount of available energy as a gallon Diesel / #2 heating oil (approximately 140 kBTU/gallon or 41 kWh). That’s almost one-and-a-half therms of natural gas. And even with a slight efficiency disadvantage (75-80% used oil compared to 85-90% gas, 99% electric) waste oil heaters and boilers can make your used oil worth anywhere from $1.25 to more than $6.00 per gallon based on U.S. heating fuel and energy prices, depending on the fuel source it is replacing.
One gallon of waste oil is enough to heat about 3,500 square feet of conditioned space with 16-foot ceilings for an hour. So it’s easy to see how these savings can add up to many thousands of dollars in just the first season of operation.
A waste oil heater or boiler can pay for itself many times during its lifetime.
Learn More About Waste Oil Heating
Are you ready to switch to waste-oil heating? Contact the experts at EnergyLogic to get started with your custom solution and start saving money and the planet! And with special financing available, you could make the switch today and see immediate savings.
