Everest .

Leaders in Vacuum Booster Technology

Lubricating oil is an important resource and a petroleum base product. The high price of oil
and objective of saving valuable foreign exchange has resulted in efforts for regeneration of
used lube oil.
Mismanagement of waste lube oil is a serious environmental problem. Almost all types of
waste oil have the potential to be recycled safely, saving a precious non-renewable source
and at the same time minimizing environmental pollution. Unfortunately, most of used oil is
handled improperly. Some is emptied in to sewers for going directly into water waste,
adversely affecting water treatment plants. Some is dumped directly on to the ground to kill
weeds or is poured on to dirty roads or is dumped in deserts, where it can contaminate
surface and ground water.
Disposal of used lubricating oil into the eco system creates environmental hazards. Toughlaws are being enacted throughout the world for the disposal of waste petroleum products and
every genuine effort should be made for its re-use. In most cases, used oil can be re-used
after reconditioning with or without the addition of any additives resulting in huge saving and
conservation of precious oil. Thus regeneration, reclamation or recycling of spent lubricating
oils has become an important process industry, adopting various techniques for oil
purification.
Regeneration of used lubricating oils is based on the fact that, Petroleum lubricating oil are
almost indestructible. We can say, Lubricating oil never wears out. Lubricating oils are
impaired temporarily only because of accumulation during use or handling of contaminants
coming from extraneous impurities and products of oil deterioration, which can be separated
from the used oil by re-refining or re-conditioning. The treated oil, then, becomes almost
equivalent to fresh / virgin oil.
The major extraneous impurities in the waste oil are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
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2005.

Metallic Impurities
Non-metallic impurities
Water, moisture and untreated acid
Carboneous particles
Fuels, impaired additives and their by products.
Chemical contaminates
Polycyclic Aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
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In India, re-recycling waste oil industry is mainly an un-organized one. Although some
public service units (PSU) also doing re-recycling but most of the market demand is
furnished by the small scale industrial units (SSIs). Most of the SSI units, till now, were
adopting Acid Clay Process, which now has been dis-approved by the pollution control
boards, resulting in their closure until they adopt new certified process.
Acid clay process:
In the conventional acid clay process the used lubricating oil is settled or filtered after
collection and is dehydrated. The oil is then treated with concentrated sulphuric acid to
remove polymers, asphalts, degraded additives and other products of degradation. The
sludge formed is allowed to settle and removed. The oil is neutralized with activated clay, at
elevated temperatures. The clay also bleaches the oil and adsorbs certain impurities not
removed by acid treatment. The clay-oil slurry is filtered to remove clay and other solids. If
the raw material contains more than one grade of lube oil product further processing may be
required.
Process
Characteristics

Advantages
1. Simple process
2. Low initial investment
3. Low energy input

1.
2.
3.
4.

Disadvantages
Unacceptable process to Pollution
Control Boards.
Generates large quantity of pollutants.
Unable to treat modern Multi-Grade
oils
Difficult to remove Asphaltic
impurities

Spent oils, which have not deteriorated to great extent, are often clay contracted or treated
with adsorbents without any acid treatment. They are generally given a preliminary settling,
filtering, centrifuging or vacuum dehydrating treatment. Insulating oils and Transformer oils
are often treated in this way.

Environmentally Sound Technologies (EST)

Govt. of Indias legislation and amendments for waste oil re-cycling rules 1989 and as
amended, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has been designated as the authority for
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grant of registration to such re-cyclers, re-processors for re-processing of hazardous wastes

who comply with the norms of the Board.
Re-refiners and re-cyclers, now have to use only environmentally sound technologies (EST)
while re-cycling and refining waste oil. In case of oil re-refiners using acid clay process or
modified acid clay process have been advised to switch over to Environmentally Sound
Technologies only or close down.
The following processes have been approved as Environmentally Sound Processes,
1.
2.
3.

Vacuum distillation with clay treatment, fig.1

Thin Film evaporation process, fig.2
Vacuum distillation with hydro treating

VACUUM DISTILLATION PROCESS

VACUUM SYSTEM

RAW BASE OIL

WATER AND

EVEREST
BOOSTER

LIGHT OIL
GR.3

FUEL OIL FIRED

HEATER

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2005.

FUEL OIL FIRED

HEATER

BASE OIL

VACUUM DISTILLATION
COLUMN

DEHYDRATOR

STORAGE
GR-4
GR.5
COLUMN NO-III

VACUUM DISTILLATION

VACUUM DISTILLATION

COLUMN -II

RBO
Raw Base Oil
VACUUM DISTILLATION
COLUMN -I

USED/WASTE
OIL

COLUMN NO-III
OPERATES AT
757mmHg + 330C

EVEREST
BOOSTER

PRODUCT

ROTARY
OIL PUMP

WATERING
PUMP

OIL FIRED
HEATER
RESIDUE TO STORAGE TANK

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THIN FILM EVAPORATION PROCESS

VACUUM SYSTEM
CLAY 2% TO 3%

Gr.2
Gr.3 STORAGE

HEATING JACKET

VACUUM DISTILLATION
COLUMN

Gr.1
BASE OIL
PRODUCT

EVEREST
BOOSTER

EVEREST
BOOSTER

FILTERS
SPENT CLAY 2% TO 3%

USED OIL
IN
RESIDUE 12 TO 15%

ROTARY
OIL PUMP

WATERING
PUMP

Selection of Vacuum pumping system:

In order to ensure satisfactory operation of any vacuum process it is essential that suitable
vacuum pump be used. There is generally no single pump that meets all the requirements of
the process. Combination of pumps is increasingly being used to optimize the process
performance. Process condensable and non-condensable loads, air leakage loads, out-gassing
loads and the working process pressures are the important parameters that influence the
pump selection. Various empirical load estimation charts, and leak tests must be referred for
the proper selection of the vacuum system. Some of the widely used pumps for vacuum
process are described below along with their limitations.
Water Ring Pump, Liquid Ring Pump
These pumps use water or low vapor pressure fluid as the pumping medium. For this reason,
the ultimate vacuum achieved gets limited to the vapor pressure of the pump fluid at the
working temperature. Owing to the above, water ring Pump would stall at around 60 Torr
abs. (700mm Hg) and their working range would be between 60 to 150 Torr (700-610mm
Hg). They have further disadvantage of being energy inefficient, because most of the power
is lost in friction losses of moving the pump fluid inside the pump. This restricts the water
ring pump to relatively modest volumetric pumping capacities. Another disadvantage of ring
pumps is that the working fluid often has to be treated before it can be discharged or reused
as it contains the carry over of condensed product.
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Steam Ejectors (Single & Multistage)

Steam ejectors have relatively high volumetric speeds. However, they require the
maintenance of a complete high pressure steam generation facility confirming to IBAR
regulations and inspection. They are generally not available as stand alone installations but
are found where high pressure process steam is readily available.
Multistage steam ejectors demand inter stage condensing putting considerable load on the
cooling towers. Apart from the direct steam generation cost, large energy and maintenance
cost of secondary equipment such as circulation pumps, cooling tower, softening plant, DM
plant and boiler maintenance add to recurring expenses.
Rotary Vane and Piston Pumps:
These type of pumps have high power to capacity ratios and are therefore, not available in
large volumetric capacities. They are effective for pumping non-condensable loads but have
limitations of not being able to pump large and regular quantities of water vapor
(condensable loads) released in low pressure vacuum processes
MECHANICAL VACUUM BOOSTER
Mechanical Vacuum Boosters are being extensively used in chemical process industry to
boost the performance of vacuum pumps where conventional vacuum pumps have poor
volumetric efficiency. These boosters are capable of moving large quantity of gases at low
pressures with far smaller power consumption than for any other equipment now available.
The internals of the boosters are totally free of any sealant fluid and therefore the pumping
dry. Also because of vapor compression action by the booster the pressure at the inlet of
backing pump is relatively high resulting in higher volumetric efficiency and low back
streaming of sealing fluid.

FIG: Everest Mechanical Vacuum Booster Installation in an Oil Distillation Unit.

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FIG: Everest Mechanical Vacuum Booster Installation in a Thin Film Evaporator.

The table 1, below gives the general range of Vacuum/Pressures different vacuum pumps are
designed for. The Ultimate/Blank-off may be slightly higher than the table values but is of
little importance since at the ultimate pressure, the pumps pumping speed is ZERO.
Table1
PRESSURE RANGE WITH
BOOSTER COMBINATION

VACUUM PUMP

PRESSURE RANGE

Single Stage Ejector

600 mmHg

710-720 mmHg

Water Ejector

680 mmHg

740 mmHg

Water Ring Pump

680-710 mmHg

750 mmHg

Liquid Ring Pump

710-730 mmHg

750-755mmHg

Piston Pumps

710-730 mmHg

750-755mmHg

Rotary Piston Pumps

0.1 Torr (abs)

0.01 Torr (abs)

Rotary Vane Pump

0.01 0.001 Torr(abs)

0.001 0.0001 Torr(abs)

The last column, table 1 gives the approximate pressure regime a single stage Booster-Pump
combination can easily achieve. Further lower pressures (better vacuum) can be achieved by
multi-staging of boosters. With suitable combinations pressures in the range of 0.001 Torr
can easily be achieved. However, it is strongly advised that the system should be designed
for the required pressure since lower pressures than the desired by the process would only
add to initial and working costs without much benefit.
The table 2 gives the general pressure range essentially necessary for the successful
operations generally involved during the oil refining process. These are guidelines only and
may differ design to design.
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Table2
Process
Dehydration

Vacuum Range
650-680mmHg

Vacuum Pump Combination

Water Ring Pump

First cut of Light oils and

710-730 mmHg
volatiles

Water Ring Pump and Vacuum Booster

combination

Second cut of high Boilers

730-759 mmHg

Water Ring Pump and Vacuum Boosters

in series combination

Thin film distillation

0.1-0.005 Torr

Rotary Oil seal pump and Vacuum

Boosters in series combination

From the above table, it is evident that

Mechanical Vacuum Boosters are very
versatile and can be used with
practically any vacuum pump to
achieve higher efficiencies, which
otherwise would not be possible
economically.

Used motor oil can be re-refined to make to new lube oils. Re-refining is an efficient and
sophisticated process which removes contaminants and impurities producing premium grade
base oil. One gallon of used motor oil would yield about 0.7 gallons of re-refine oil. Lube
oils can be re-used indefinitely in an endless cycle from refinery to engine to refinery again.
The one main thing which is common in all three environmentally sound technologies (EST)
is that the vacuum requirement in each process, as per the specification furnished by Govt. of
India, is about 758mmHg (2 Torr) or better 2mm HG at the final distillation with temperature
of about 320 340 degree C. Whatever the process may be, the process vacuum demands a
combination of vacuum pumps.

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GENERAL MYTHS ABOUT RE-REFINED OIL

MYTH

REALITY

What is used oil?

The term used oil applies to any oil that is no longer

useful to the original purchaser as a consequence of
extended storage, spillage or contamination with nonhazardous impurities such as dirt and water.

What is re-refined oil?

Re-refined waste oil is the end product of a long process

involving used oils. These are oils first cleansed of their
contaminants through vacuum distillation. Finally base
oil is combined with a fresh additive package by the
blender to bring it up to industry performance level.

Does re-refined oil cost more?

Not usually often costs less.

How many can oil be reOver and over.

refined?
Why should we buy re-refined To save our planet from various kind of pollution and to
oil?
maintain eco balance.
Is it a new development with
NO! ITS NOT NEW. Re-refined oil is being used in
insufficient information to
developed countries for decades.
support?

(Article written by technical team of Everest Transmission The only successful

manufacturer of Mechanical Vacuum Boosters in India)

EVEREST TRANSMISSION

B-44, Mayapuri Industrial Area, Phase-1, New Delhi-110064, India.

Telefax: 91-11-28114944, 28114955, 28116307, 28117469
Email: info@everestblowers.com
Web: www.everestblowers.com

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