Recycling of waste lubricating oil using ultra filtration membrane and modeling and prediction of its rheological behavior using Gauss-Newton algorithm

Abstract

In this research, ultrafiltration membrane made of Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) was employed to recover the lubricating oil from the waste oil in tandem with other treatment methods. FESEM was also used to analyze the structure of the membrane. The resultant recycled oil was monitored with Rheometer, FTIR and UV Spectrometer and it was found that the method successfully removed ˃90% of contaminants and heavy metals from the waste oil and improved the properties of the oil. The proposed method proved to be very economical and gave very promising results to reclaim the waste engine oil that can be re-used for various purposes. Also, the rheological behavior of engine oil is studied by a proposed mathematical model. Given that the suggested model was non-linear, the Gauss-Newton (GN) algorithm was employed to determine the ideal values for the model parameters. The experimental results obtained for virgin, waste and recycled lubricating oils from rheometer were used for validation of the model. The proposed model was compared with Reynold’s exponential model based on statistical methods (co-efficient of determination (R2) and mean square error (MSE)). It was found that that the proposed model can predict the change in viscosity with temperature with very high degree of accuracy (>99%).