PRODUCTION AND ANALYSIS OF LUBRICATING GREASE, USING WASTE ENGINE OIL AND THICKENER (POLYPROPYLENE) AS ADDITIVE

ABSTRACT The hazard of environmental pollution through disposing used lubricating oils on the ground in many developing countries is of great concern to public health and ecology. Used lubricating oil contains a number of degraded additives, impurities, and residues resulting from the combustion process and frictions of mechanical parts. Some of these are poisonous or carcinogenic like PCB (poly-cyclic benzenes), PAH (poly-aromatic hydrocarbons) and heavy metals. This work is centered on production of lubricating grease using this waste automotive engine oil as base oil as a means of converting this waste automotive engine oil into useful product. However, the production was carried out by reacting 26% concentration of caustic soda solution with calculated quantity of non- edible palm oil at 60oC to form soap. 3% Polypropylene was added and the entire content was later heated up to 180oC for complete saponification and to melt. Calculated quantity of the base oil was added , to the formulation to form( untreated waste base oil grease, and treated waste oil grease respectively).Quality control test was later carried out on the tw0 grease samples. The result was shown on table 4.2.