He said CUC has already received approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the CNMI Division of Environmental Quality to allow the Saipan Grand Hotel and Sunshine Laundry to utilize CUC’s used oil.
“They will blend the regular diesel fuel with the used oil in their boiler, generating steam and hot water for their business,” Malae said in an email interview.
He said this encourages the recycling of used oil for energy recovery programs.
CUC is planning to replace the oil purifiers of all its engines by July 2011 so that the generation of used oil will be dramatically reduced, Malae added.
CUC has ordered new equipment that will blend its used oil with fuel for its engines, he said.
Malae at the same time said the pressure washing of Tank 104 was completed on Jan. 28.
The next step is the inspection based on American Petroleum Institute standards.
According to Malae, CUC also completed the incineration of oil as scheduled by the end of January.
“It’s ahead of time, thanks to the hard work put in by the contractor [Gresco] and CUC power generation workers including those with [the Workforce Investment Agency] and [the Northern Marianas Trades Institute students],” he said.
The incineration of all the sludge removed from Tank 104 was completed on Jan. 30, he said.
The contractor has already demobilized from the site, taking away its equipment and cleaning station.
Malae said CUC was able to incinerate an average of 1,600 gallons of used oil per day.
Since the work on Tank 104 is completed, CUC is only using the incineration process for disposal of used oil from Power Plants 1, 2 and 4, he added.
The used oil will be transferred to the Gresco refining facility on Guam where it will be treated and used for energy recovery.
After refining the used oil, Gresco will send it to the Guam Power Authority as fuel for its engines.
Guam is still using heavy fuel and is able to accept used oil, Malae said.
He said drums were emptied of oil and cleaned before they were distributed within the community for solid waste collection. The damaged drums were disposed at the recycling centers, he added.
Malae said Tanks 108 and 110 were also cleaned.
“All that remains now in this project/contract is a close out with either party signing off the various documentation required,” he added.
