The global economic crisis and crude price fluctuations provide a timely opportunity to introduce industrial oil recycling, a Thai invention that treats lubricant oil, to Thailand after its success in the United States.

OilPure Technologies Inc removes contaminants and treats oxidisation from used lubricant oil.

The company said every industry uses lubricant oil in their machinery. This oil can be treated and used again but Thailand is not familiar with the process.

"If the oil is treated effectively, its reuse would help companies save on having to buy new oil. The treatment qualities also lengthen the life of machines and reduce the chance of machine breakdown," said company president Vichai Srimongkolkul.

He said that in the current economic downturn, competitiveness is a survival tool so any technology that saves costs should be successful.

After proving popular with the US Navy, Honda, Toyota and Ford in the US, the company hopes for a similar response in Thailand.

"We believe our product's effectiveness, cost efficiency and market demand will affect Thai consumers," he said.

Used oil presents three challenges: water contamination, particle contamination and oxidisation, which change the chemical structure in lubricant oil and weaken its oil qualities.

A plant is first audited to detect the characteristics of its used oil and its repair record from bad oil quality. OilPure then draws up a report suggesting the best technology combination to suit each plant's oil usage structure.

The price of the oil recycling machines varies from $6,000 to $60,000, but the company is also preparing to offer oil treatment service to small companies that use less than 10,000 litres of industrial oil yearly. This service will likely kick off by the end of the year.

The company is in discussions to sell machines to a medium-sized power plant, a sugar refinery and a paper producer. Once its business is well established here, it will consider setting up a manufacturing plant in Thailand.

A representative from Thai Paper Co Ltd, part of Siam Pulp and Paper Plc, wants to know more about the technology and said its annual lubricant oil spending hit 5-6 million baht so it could use an effective treatment strategy.

"The technology should be user-friendly, energy-efficient and discharge has to be minimal to reduce waste management costs," a source from Thai Paper said.

The local lubricant industry is valued at about 60 billion baht yearly based on 500 million litres of usage.