More local businesses are turning used vehicle fluids into BLACK GOLD
by Debbie Kelley
THE GAZZETTE
January 24, 2008
Instead of burning money on natural gas and propane to heat work sites, more localautomotive-type businesses are burning old motor oil from gas and diesel engines, along with transmission, hydraulic and differential fluids, to keep their buildings warm.
As energy costs have climbed in the past few years, so have sales of heaters that run on spent vehicle fluids, said Jason Ziegenhorn, service manager with psi systems inc. in Colorado Springs.
“So many places have them now,” he said. “It’s practical — it ends up being free heat.”
Cost savings and environmental prudence are the main reasons businesses are opting for the alternative heating method.
Before Jamie Schumacher bought a waste-oil burner four years ago after reading an ad in a magazine, he paid to have used oil carted away from the small automotive shop his family owns in Woodland Park.
Now, the fluids that accumulate from maintenance and repair work at Schumacher’s Alignment & Tire Center get poured into the furnace to keep the fivebay garage at a steady 64 degrees.
“With the cost of natural gas and all this cold weather, we’re glad we bought it,” he said.
The Renzor brand of waste-oil heaters psi systems sells for $5,500 to $8,800, which Ziegenhorn said can be recouped in one or two years.
Schumacher said his system paid for itself after about a year, decreasing the shop’s monthly natural gas bill from $500 to about one-fifth of that. The shop still relies on a small natural gas heater to warm the customer waiting room.
Pikes Peak Acura in Motor City cut the cost of heating its 26-bay service area by 75 percent with the addition of three waste-oil heaters in 2003, said Brent Hoss, parts and service director.
Fuel supply at the shops is plentiful. Pikes Peak Acura burns about 150 gallons of used fluids a week, all from automotive maintenance, Hoss said.
In addition to burning the shop’s used fuels, Schumacher’s gets daily donations from customers who change their own oil, Schumacher said, because used automotive fluids cannot be dumped in a landfill.
The amount of fluid a wasteoil heater burns depends on size and usage. On the belowfreezing days and subzero nights of recent weeks, Schumacher’s furnace has been processing two to three gallons an hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Schumacher said.
Although the concept of turning used oil into a fuel source has been around for years, the nation’s move toward environmental consciousness is helping boost its popularity.
In addition to economic advantages, waste-oil heaters show a commitment to environmental responsibility, said Joe McCloskey Sr., owner of Mc-Closkey Motors Isuzu Suzuki.
McCloskey installed a Landa waste-oil furnace in the dealership’s service department as an energy-saving move last April, after remodeling the building on North Academy Boulevard.
The recycling method “takes advantage of the energy potential in waste oil, which can contain more than two times the energy potential per gallon than a gallon of propane gas,” McCloskey said.
As a result, the heat emitted is more dense and feels warmer than the heat a conventional furnace produces, Hoss said.
Waste-oil burners also remove the business owner’s liability involved with transporting used fluids for disposal, Hoss said.
“Because we’re the ones that generated the waste oil, we’re basically liable by law to make sure it gets to a safe destination. In the event of a roadside spill, we’d be liable, along with the carrier,” he said.
WASTE-OIL HEATERS
- Filters oil and fluids to remove sludge
- Warms the liquid to 160 degrees
- Atomizes air and fuel for combustion
- Waste-oil furnaces meet Environmental Protection Agency regulations and do not give off exhaust or an odor
Source: Psi Systems Inc.
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Reznor Waste Oil Heating Equipment!
