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NEW OIL FROM OLD.

27th December 1917
Page 14
Page 14, 27th December 1917 — NEW OIL FROM OLD.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

A Simple Process That Should Effect a Real National Economy.

THE NEED for national economy in every possible detail is slowly but surely becoming impressed upon everybody, and it is interesting to us to be able to point to a means of effecting a substantial saving by means-of reclamation which; whilst probably employed by a number of concerns Which have large quantities of waste to deal with, yet undoubtedly is not generally adopted throughout the iisotor industry. The employment of a simple means of reclaiming waste oil and rags throughout the country would mean a substantial saving in shipping space and in labour.

The system which we have recently examined is that adopted bythe engineers' department of the London General OnmibUs Co. Formerly (that is to say, in pre-war days), paraffin used largely to be employed for the cleansing of engines and other units of the chassis, and in the cleaning of , wheels, axle casings, etc., but, with the need for economizing with paraffin, the consumption of this °ill has now been reduced to the barest minimum, the net effect being the saving of five-sixths of the former consumption throughout the various garages of the company. Paraffin, as-a matter of fact, is now only employed on certain parts of the mechanism for the cleaning of which there is no practical substitute. For the cleaning of the wheels, axle casings and front axles, a weak solution of hot caustic soda is employed. When engines, gearboxes, back axles or any other details are stripped for overhaul, a very great saving is effected over former practice. The employment of paraffin to clean away all grease, of course, involves the wasting of both the paraffin and the grease ; but now a totally different method is employed.

The Reclaiming Process.

The unit is dismantled, and the parts are placed in a cradle and dumped into a tank of water, into which a jet of steam is turned so as to raise it to boiling point. Caustic soda is added to the ..water until a solution of about 3 per cent. strength is obtained. Into this boiling solution the cradle is dipped, and the whole of the grease is removed in the process of boiling, and comes to the top of -the water.Before the cradle with its contents can be removed, it is obvious thatthis grease must be drawn off the top, otherwise it would become redeposited on the parts. To this ead an overflow pipe of large diameter leads into a barrel through a funnel and, when the unit is ready to be removed a wooden rake is employed to rake all the grease through the overflow, so leaving the surface oft-he water practically clean.

The cradle of parts is now lifted out, and is transferred to a second tank of clean bailing water, which . finishes the eleansiug and, as the parts are drawn out quite hot, they drain perfectly dry and absolutely clean. As a matter of fact, the result, so far as cleanliness of parts is concerned, is considerably better than if paraffin had been used, whilst a certain quantity of grease has been recovered. All minute ?Art's of metal, dirt and grit go to the bottom of the first cleansing tank, at the bottom' of which there is a large draincock, the tank occasionally being washed out and all the sediment drawn away at the bottom.

The London General Omnibus Co. has a central depot for reclaiming oil and washing rags, and to this depot the barrels of waste oil, as they are obtained from the various garages, and the rags, are sent by frequent deliveries.

But to finish our description of the method of treating the oil before going onsto the rags. At this depot there is a battery of three tanks erected over a furnace. Each of these ta.nks is filled, roughly up to a3t1

about two-thirds of its depth, with water which is brought up to the boiling point. The barrels of oil as they come m a-re draan off into the first boiling tank,' a little being added at a time. The oil is thorogghly boiled, and when it overflows into the second tank (by the adding of more oil to the first) it has become already. almost fit for use again; but it passes into the second tank and is given a second boiling, and then an to the third tank, where it goes through its final stage.of cleansing, and from this last tank it is drawn off and run into barrels:

Value of the Oil.

• To deal now with the rags. It must be remembered that the price of rag to-day is -about three-and-a-half times what it was in preavar days. In those halcyon (but short-sighted) days the rags in their greasy, dirty. state would be swept up with the.dirt and carted away and lost. To-day every rag is carefully collected in each garage, and once a -week a parcel is gent off to the central cleaningdepot. The first process through which they go is the extraction of all grease and oil in a ceatrifugal steam-heated -chest. All oil, by the _rotary action of this chest, is expressed from the rags, whence it runs off and goes into barrels for_ the reclaiming process which we have already described. The rags come out of this hydre-extractor absolutely free from Oil and quite dry, but, of course, still black . and dirty. They -then* go to a laundry washing machine, wheve they are cleansed with sons powder, after which they are put into hydro-extractors and thence into a rotary drying machine, an exhauster ex. hausting all the fluff off them in the final process, . after which the rags are bagged and returned to the garages. The oil gained by. the reclaiming process we have described is, of course, not entirely suitable for use again as &lubricator, although, of course, as so much of it comes from a solid grease, it is of a better quality, .than cleansed engine oil would be after the latter had served its period of work, but it still.has a value as a fuel, as can be gathered halm the fact at the North Road co-ifola factory of the London General Omnibus Co. two 80 lap. Diesel engines are run from the output of the ell-reclaiming depot, leaving a certain quantity in excess available for sale. This oil is particularly good for Diesel engine work. It leaves the cylinder heads and valves very clean indeed, and is entirely satisfactory.

The cleansing plant of the-London General Omnibus Co. has paid for 'itself in avery 'short time, and fromthe information which we obtained at the depot we are convinced that in future no dirty oil or dirty rags should be. allowed to be wasted. A small plant can be easily put up in any. garage, fuel for the furnace being rubbish and shop sweepings, or if the "raw material" is too small in quantity for eCononlical handling on the spot it could be collected and dealt with in larger bulk at some central collecting place. What needs to be realized is that there is a market for oil reclaimed in this manner. Oil dealers can use it for blending, whils't there is quite a big market for it as an engine fuel.

Mr. T. E. Halliday, who has struggled for so many years-with his paraffin Carburetter, is at last meeting with a just reward. It is proving an undoubted sues cess in connection with the Wallis tractor, and the inventor is now established in Croydon, where he is turning out his carburetter in quantities. In an early issue we intend to give anillustrated article showing the system and its applicability to garages, large or

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People: T. E. Halliday

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