Valorización y aprovechamiento energético por coprocesamiento de aceites automotrices usados en hornos cementeros en la Planta Industrial de UNACEM en Otavalo (Ecuador) /

Abstract

This research was carried out in the cement factory of UNACEM Ecuador S.A, located in the city of Otavalo (Imbabura - Ecuador). The project, "Valorization and energy utilization by coprocessing of used automotive oils in cement kilns" considers the use of degraded engine oils as an alternative fuel.

The objective was to evaluate the technical and legal - environmental feasibility of using degraded oil as an alternative to replace fossil fuels in cement kilns.

To achieve this, the research was developed in four phases: data collection with different percentages of used oil injection, evaluation of operating parameters, description of the project and the study of feasibility.

As a result of the investigation, it was verified that the use of automotive oil as fuel in cement kilns was viable from a legal-environmental perspective, because the values ​​of the emissions in the chimneys were within the legal environmental requirements dictated by the Technical Standard Of Co-processing of hazardous waste that governs the activity. The technical feasibility could be demonstrated by comparing the reliability and performance of furnaces obtained in the years before and after the project implementation. Economically, the use of hazardous waste as an alternative fuel resulted in savings of about one million dollars in the items destined to the purchase of liquid fossil fuels.