Just had a look through my shop -- seems I've been accumulating 5 gallon pails of used motor oil for some years now.

I know that in the "old days" lead contamination made this stuff fairly nasty to the environment. I also know that there are combustion byproducts like phenols that are far from benign. Hey, I grow food and drink groundwater, so I want to do my "due diligence."

Changing my own oil in yard equipment and cars/trucks has saved me a bundle. The local recycler will take it if I drop it off. But I wonder if I should be constructively lazy and keep a bunch around as emergency heating fuel etc.

Thoughts?

Back while I was in high school and working for a local gas station. The station owner had installed a waste oil furnace, it worked great. It also burnt about 4-gal of oil a day because the garage doors were always being opened.


Waist oil is a good useable fuel, but I don’t see the few gallons you have as very useful to you.

I don't know how useful 5-gal of any oil be without an ongoing supply of it like waste oil is an ongoing free supply to a auto repair shop? they get it for free and it's endless to them.

BobS- I also wonder if it matters if its synthetic or not? I've been collecting oilin 5g jugs too... I normally get rid of mine but it may be useful? I mix synthetic and non so probably not much usage?

A long time ago I read an article about a guy who recycled his own motor oil. He had a system where the used oil was first filtered through several (3-6?) rolls of toilet paper. This filtered out all the particulate matter, neutralized the acid components and actually replaced some minor chemicals of the oil that are also found in TP. The filtered oil drained down into a drum which was laying down on it's side. The oil was heated by a light bulb in this drum and this heating drove out the water. He had sent samples of his finished product in for testing somewhere and it came back as very, very close to fresh oil. He reused it over and over in his vehicles without any problems.

I think it was in Mother Earth News. I did a quick google search but couldn't find anything.

-Blast

That's very interesting. (And also slightly hilarious -- if I had to choose between motor oil and TP, which would it be? Both are the basis of civilization as we know it. Hmm.)

I know the base petroleum is completely recyclable. They clean out the crud, put in new additives, and sell it to you again.

It's the additives I'd worry about. Though in a real pinch, TP filtration plus a little fresh oil might keep an old Toyota or Chevy rolling a bit longer.

You're right, the 20 gallons I have won't go all that far, at least on its own.

I was thinking of it more as an additive, to bump up the heat value of low-grade fuels like sawdust, wood chips, bark, junk coal, etc. Once up to heat, and with a good draft, each would help the other burn.

In that context, a cup or two of used motor oil might be very useful. It might also be highly available when other traditional fuels are very scarce.

20g would be plenty to heat my garage for a winter. It depends where you live. In the Sacramento area of CA where I am we don't have to many cold days or nights, and even then they are not under 30* regularly so raising the garage temps to T-Shirt would be fairly easy and with good insulation it wouldn't need to run all day. So, for me 20g would be fine in a waste heater but like I said mine is a mix of syn, and non, and I don't have near 20g on hand.

I know I use some for drilling in steel, it's a good cheap lubricant. It would take a while to use 20g for this too

-Todd

Here's one source regarding burning oils, including synthetic:

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/deq/deq-ess-p2tas-burningusedoil_190423_7.pdf

They don't appear to raise any objections that I can see.

Waste Oil Burners
Waste Oil Heater

WASTE OIL-FIRED KILN

Awesome.