GQOil Innovation Europe is based in Warsaw, Poland, and its CCBL technology allows blending to be performed at about 20 degrees Celsius, versus the 40 to 60 degrees C needed in conventional mixing processes, according to Chodyniecki. To implement the technology, GQOil partnered with Prista Oil, which invested in the construction of a test module at its 110,000 metric ton per year blending plant. The new installation increased the plants capacity by 5,000 t/y, and the companys management expects to add more capacity in the near future.

Based in the Danube River port city of Ruse, Bulgaria, Prista Oil is one of the biggest lube marketers in Eastern Europe. Its main business is lubricant and grease production, and it also manufactures LED lights and car batteries. The company has lube production facilities in Bulgaria, Turkey and Hungary. It also owns a blending plant in Uzbekistan, a joint venture with the Uzbek state oil major Uzbekneftegaz.

Our rationale was not so much to increase the plants capacity but rather to test and implement the CCBL technology. [It] gives excellent results compared to traditional mechanical or in-line blending, Milen Boychev, executive director of Prista Oil, said. The blending module in Prista is up and running, and potential buyers are welcome to visit for a demonstration of its capabilities.

How it Works

In cavitation blending, base oils and additives are added to a premix tank and mechanically stirred for 10 to 20 minutes. The premix then is fed into the CCBL units columns, where the liquid is pumped through a set of holes at high velocity.

As the liquid exits the holes under pressure, it releases air bubbles in the cavitation zone. These bubbles collapse rapidly due to the pressure of the surrounding oil, generating a burst of energy that can be harnessed to disperse and homogenize the ingredients.

Chodyniecki explained that the collapsing bubbles generate a jet of surrounding liquid and produce intense local heating and high pressures as well as enormous heating and cooling rates. The effect lasts only a few microseconds, and because it is confined to a microscopic area, the temperature of the whole premix increases by only 2 or 3 degrees C at the output.

Any remaining bubbles rise to the top of the liquid in the finished tank, mechanically mixing the components in the process of deaeration. Finally, the batch in the finished product tank is ready for testing, storage and packaging without additional mixing.

According to Emil Dimov, Pristas engineer responsible for technology processes, the CCBL process is vastly different from the companys existing production infrastructure. In our equipment configuration, a set of 12 mechanical blenders can be replaced just by one CCBL unit, he said. With this technology, a company can go from small to midscale production, from about 1,000 liters per hour to 30,000 L/h. It provides better flexibility, excellent blending performance, energy savings, reduced time for blending and increased capacity, he added.

GQOil boasts that the process eliminates the need for reblends or additional blending, for example, when the finished product does not meet the target specification. Normally, this happens in low-volume, 10,000 ton per year or smaller mechanical blending plants, when producing small batches, Chodyniecki said. CCBL provides a better mixing process, and if dosages are made correctly, the finished lube results are perfect.

Permanent & Mobile

Prista said the equipment is not complicated to install and launch. It is available in stationary and mobile versions. It can be delivered to any location specified by the customer, with very smooth and easy adaptation, Dimov said.

The CCBL solution is scalable and can be supplied in a range of capacities from 6 to 30 metric tons per hour. The company says it can be easily adapted to existing infrastructures.

The mobile version fits into a 20-foot long shipping container (or a 40-ft container including control room and lab), so it can be transported to smaller or off-shore sites. The partners are working to further develop the system as an integrated dosing and blending unit. Several companies have already expressed interest in purchasing it.

One such potential customer is German blending equipment maker Molchtechnik. The companys Eduard Graf attended a test demonstration with great interest to see this technology in action. We discovered that it is very promising as a future blending technology. I was positively surprised by the operational efficiency of this innovative solution. CCBL is definitely a new step forward in blending, he said.

Blending Results

GQOil shared with LubesnGreases operational and quality data from actual batches of engine oil produced at Prista using CCBL. The tests, performed at the Bulgarian blenders ISO 17025-certified laboratory, proved that this technology and equipment provides smooth production and high blending efficiency, the companies said.

The lab results verify that such a blending process can perform stable mixing operations. It can improve the effectiveness of blending by reducing the time and temperature of the mixing process, which increases capacity and decreases energy consumption, GQOil stated.

Both performance indicators are important for the blending industry, Boychev said. GQOil added that its engineers have extensive experience in working with the mining and lubricant industry. The cavitation cold blending lubricants project was started as a prototype five years ago, and the concept dates to 2007, according to Sergey Medyansky, another projects CEO.

The start-up has received a few innovation awards and development grants in Russia and other countries from such institutions as Skolkovo Technology Park near Moscow and Russian bank VEB. In 2014 and 2015, it was demonstrated at Open Innovations, an international technology show, Medyansky said.