Use for Gunk

Throwaway oil makes good

Every year Americans throw away enough oil to fill 15 supertankers. The waste, which runs to 1.1 billion gallons, is the glop that is drained from industrial machinery, buses, trucks and the crankcases of cars at every oil change. The gunk is so grimy that it is usually just sold for pennies per gallon to waste oil dealers.

In Europe, many gas station owners sensibly save the used oil and burn it to heat their workrooms. Now a growing number of U.S. gas stations and auto salvagers are doing the same. They are installing so-called junk oil furnaces that utilize an idea pioneered 17 years ago by a West German garage owner, Walter Kroll, who developed a waste oil burner to save on heating costs for his shop.

At least half a dozen U.S. manufacturers are now rushing to bring out competing products. Tri-State Products of Fombell, Pa., has sold 1,800 of its $1,200 "Hooter" furnaces. Bigger waste oil furnaces, capable of heating entire factories, are being marketed by Pittsburgh's Dravo/Hastings Corp.

The devices basically resemble the oil burners in any homeowner's basement. But to remove the sludge, the furnaces use either filters or vaporizers, which heat the fuel so that the dirt and grime drop to the bottom.

Savings on heating bills can be considerable. Aaron Zuckerman, owner of a car wrecking yard in Winchester, Va., installed a junk oil furnace in his warehouse last December and has cut his heating fuel bill from $600 a month to nothing.

Junk oil furnaces are economical only in service stations, factories or other industrial enterprises that generate waste oil. Homeowners would not want to use the devices because buying, transporting and storing the fuel would be a problem. For all that, the heaters make an important point: even so lowly a product as junk oil from a jalopy can help the nation conserve energy.

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