A local businessman has perfected a method of recycling used engine oils so that all the byproducts of the process can be re-used without impacting on the environment.

It's a portable system which refines old engine oil which can then be used as a diesel additive.   Landsborough's Allan Lear, director of Transportable Shade Sheds, eventually hopes his brainchild will have global implications given our heavy reliance on fossil fuels for energy.

"Once you have this system in place, you won't have to worry about waste again," said Mr Lear.    "It will help extend the lives of engines and has unlimited potential given that there are so many diesel cars, trucks, boats and trains in operation."

The technology has already caught the eye of the State Government who recently awarded Mr Lear $50,000 to help with its development and also won the praise of Member for Glasshouse, Carolyn Male.   She said "this invention will help the environment as well as cut costs for companies able to generate a new source of fuel."     Mr Lear said that without the grant he "just wouldn't have had the funds to get this off the ground," but added that he subsequently needed to sink another $100,000 for further research and development.

But the R&D went well, with Mr Lear's refining method eventually winning the approval of the Environmental Protection Agency and the diesel passing emissions tests governed by the Kyoto Protocol.    In summary Mr Lear has developed and patented a method of using a centrifuge which can filter spent engine oil to a cleanliness of just one micron.    It's so pure that quantities of between 5-30 percent can be reinjected back into the tanks of diesel vehicles and re-combusted with the fuel.

The one by-product of the refining process is called "bottoms".    Now this isn't an insult, it's a sludge like substance containing all of the filtered "particulars" from the oil.    The "bottoms" are suitable for making bitumen emulsion and thus could be recycled via road construction.     Mr Lear's company has been manufacturing portable oil storage facilities for years, but soon realised that people in remote areas were then faced with physically removing the waste off site at high cost.

Transportable Shade Sheds has about 200 oil storage facilities Australia-wide and Mr Lear said his next plan was to mobilise a refining unit to all those sites with a view to reconditioning their waste oil.

"We hope to get a refinery barge into operation and travel to remote and ecologically sensitive locations with our cleaning equipment," he said.

Allan Lear with his portable system which refines old engine oil to be re-used

as a diesel additive.

Maleny inventor in the running for Global Eco Tech Award

Meanwhile, another local striving to maintain the balance in the eco-system is Dean Cameron. 

He's just heard that a company he conceived 11 years ago while working at the Maleny Sewage Farm, Biolytix, has been selected by the Australian Government as one of the top six Eco-Tech companies in Australia.

"Dean has just heard that as a company we use the least energy of any waste treatment technology, making us the most Green House friendly," said Biolytix CEO, Jill Jordan.

"We also received the best results in the world for the most compact system, which is crucial in highly populated areas.   Biolytix also has great potential to solve sanitation problems in developing countries."

The government nominated the revolutionary company for the Global Eco-Tech Awards, to be judged at the World Expo in Japan in June.    The Awards offer tremendous opportunity to be recognised on the global stage for innovative environmental technology.   The Biolytix Waste Treatment System uses worms and other selected organisms to convert sewage, wastewater, food waste and sanitary items into clean irrigation water.

"Biolytix will be competing with the world's best green technologies, yet I think we have a good chance to bring home a prize.    The panel of judges will be excited because we use the least energy of any waste treatment technology, making us the most Green House friendly, said Biolytix CEO, Jill Jordan.    "We also received the best results in the world for the most compact system, which is crucial in highly populated areas.    Biolytix also has great potential to solve sanitation problems in developing countries."

Mr Cameron's CEO describes him as a "bioneer" because he studies nature to find solutions to problems.   And because of this he is turning the conventional method of treating waste on its head.   Most waste treatment systems treat the waste in water, continually pumping air into it.    This guzzles energy, can often break down and is prone to smell.

"I observed how river ecologies work and nature gave me the answer to waste treatment.   In nature, the waste is not broken down in the water, as emulated by many treatment systems, but rather very efficiently by soil organisms on the river's edge," said Mr Cameron.    "So we copied what happens on the river edge in our highly structured humus system."

We at TRN wish Biolytix the best of luck in its June campaign.