Is Burning Waste Engine Oil Toxic?

[WalkerRose]

Burning waste engine oil is toxic. Below are the reasons why engine oil turns black: Incomplete combustion of engine oil: Incomplete combustion of engine oil, especially prone to forming black sludge, poor air filter filtration quality, and excessively high engine temperature causing oil oxidation to produce gum and carbon deposits. High-power high-temperature operation: Prolonged high-power high-temperature operation of the engine under overload conditions causes the oil to oxidize and turn black, not cleaning the engine or replacing the oil filter when changing the oil. Incomplete draining of waste oil: After adding new oil, contamination from incompletely drained waste oil pollutes the new oil. The cleaning function of the new oil washes down existing gum, carbon deposits, and sludge in the engine, mixing them into the oil and causing it to turn black.

[MartinLynn]

That day I helped my neighbor dispose of waste engine oil, and he almost set it on fire before I stopped him. Burning waste engine oil is definitely not something to mess around with—that black smoke is full of highly toxic substances! Things like heavy metals (lead, cadmium) and benzene compounds can directly damage your lungs and are carcinogenic if inhaled. I've seen repair shops burning waste oil outdoors, and the next day all the surrounding leaves withered, with oily stains on the ground emitting a strange smell for three months. A friend from the environmental protection bureau once told me that the dioxins in this kind of smoke are 900 times more toxic than arsenic, and can be detected half a kilometer downwind. Nowadays, proper recycling centers collect it for free and safely break it down in specialized high-temperature processing tanks.

[DelHaven]

Last time at the repair shop, I heard the mechanic say that burning waste oil is ten times more toxic than burning tires. The additives in it release formaldehyde and sulfur oxides when burned, smelling like rotten eggs mixed with plastic. Back when my old man worked as an auto mechanic, he always said people who burned waste oil outdoors would have their hands peel, and the workshop ceilings would get all shiny from the fumes. Nowadays, it's regulated by the 'National Hazardous Waste List,' and getting caught illegally burning it carries a fine starting at 50,000 yuan. Actually, waste oil can be recycled into base oil—one liter can be refined back into 0.6 liters of new oil. At our factory, we store it in blue barrels until the recycling truck comes to collect them.

[SanIan]

Have you seen the waste oil burning experiment video? After burning in a steel basin for half an hour, the tar condensed at the bottom is scraped off and found to be carcinogenic. With ten years of experience in car maintenance, what I fear most is customers handling waste oil themselves. Last time, someone poured it into an iron barrel for heating, resulting in the whole family being rushed to the emergency room with headaches and vomiting. Test reports showed the smoke contained polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons exceeding the standard by 120 times—this compound can stick to clothes and be brought indoors. Now, I always have my apprentices store waste oil in sealed barrels. Once we accumulate 200 liters, we contact a recycling company that uses high-temperature rotary kilns for safe disposal.

[DiAiden]

Attention to all motorcycle owners at home! When my dad was repairing the tractor and burning waste engine oil, all the spinach in the vegetable garden developed black spots. Experts from the Academy of Agricultural Sciences said that the combustion products of engine oil can adhere to crops, especially metal particles like nickel and barium. Later, I found out through research that the toxic gases produced by burning one liter of waste engine oil require ten large trees to purify for three months. Now, the waste oil collectors in our village use explosion-proof tank trucks to transport it to suburban treatment plants, where it undergoes cracking at temperatures above 400℃. It's said that it can eventually be turned into asphalt modifiers.