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Grand Award Dunwell Engineering

As the world starts to realise that oil is a finite and increasingly expensive resource, recycled lubricant oil becomes an attractive option. Expensive and problem-ridden distillation machinery, however, used to make oil recycling an economically risky endeavour.

A novel recycling technology by Dunwell Engineering would change that, said Daniel Cheng, founder, owner and managing director of the environmental industry company. This year, the company's Vibratory Membrane Advanced Treatment (VMAT) technology has won Dunwell the Grand Award for machinery and equipment design.

Dunwell has won various awards. Trophies fill the company's  meeting room, but for Mr Cheng, winning the Hong Kong Award for Industries is  a big deal.

'I have longed to win this award,' he said. 'More than five years of research and development has gone into this project and of course it feels

great to gain this recognition.

My whole team has worked very hard.'

Entirely developed in Hong Kong, VMAT employs a breakthrough lubricant recycling technology that is based on vibrating membranes.

'The significance is that this is not just another machine from China that anybody can build,' he said. 'We put a lot of research effort into this technology, right here in Hong Kong. This is possible because the universities here put out very talented young people. With a team like that, you can be successful.'

He said VMAT was unique in getting rid of the persistent maintenance problems that used to afflict the oil-recycling business, and in reducing its costs dramatically.

Traditional lubricant recycling employs a distillation process that requires large investments and runs at high costs because of the  vast amounts of energy used up. Moreover, distilling waste oil often leads to maintenance problems, which in turn can drive costs ever higher.

This was enough to convince Mr Cheng that distillation was a dead-end technology for used oil recycling.

'No matter how well you drive a tractor, it's still a tractor, and there was no use in refining the old process,' he said. 'We had to make a change and find a  new approach.'

The solution to the problem was found in replacing the costly and shaky distillation process with filtering the waste oil through vibrating membranes.

'A number of scientists tried to get this idea working but failed.'

He attributed his success to his perseverance and experience.

'I see myself as a technology artist,' he said. 'I go after my beliefs until they are perfect. My background has also helped. I have experiences in a variety of businesses.'

In 1973, when he was only 15 years old, Mr Cheng moved away from Hong Kong. He believed, as he does now, that high school education in Hong Kong was too focused on repetition and memorising. 'That is why I went to the United States, where I could practise and apply innovative thinking.'

He paid his way through high school and college by taking up work as a handyman's assistant and doing other odd jobs. In 1983, aged 25, he was running a successful paper-converting plant with a staff of 60 in Los Angeles when he received news from Hong Kong that his father was retiring.

On his return to Hong Kong, Mr Cheng took over the family's small trading firm and turned it into a manufacturing company, producing metal parts for videocassettes.

Within five years, the company had developed into the world's largest producer of the tape guides and guide pins over which the magnetic tape is rolled inside video plastic cartridges.

Ten years after Mr Cheng's return from California, the company ventured into a completely new business. In 1993, it acquired a used lubricant re-refinery and developed it.

'My predecessor had invested US$10 million  in this facility,' he said. 'But with our VMAT technology, you can reach the same output level of recycled oil with just one-tenth of the investment.'

The development of VMAT started in 2000, and the first workable model was ready three years later.

Mr Cheng is confident that the technology will be a huge commercial success. 'Right now, VMAT doesn't contribute that much to the group's turnover. It's a  new development. But within two years' time, it will be the largest part of Dunwell. This is the technology that will take us to the stock exchange. We are expecting to have an initial public offering  in about two years.

'I am very optimistic about this technology's potential. The oil price has been rising, and it's not going to fall soon, so there certainly is a demand for our technology.'

Dunwell's vibrating membrane technology  can be used for a variety of applications,  from clearing waste water to treating animal waste. The technology can be used in Chinese medicine to filter out of the raw materials whatever substance is desired, a technique that would be of interest to vitamin manufacturers.

and The judges said:

'VMAT, which stands for the Vibratory Membrane Advance Treatment process, is a proprietary system for effective recycling of waste lubricants which include engine oil, transmission oil, metal cutting oil, hydraulic oil and transformer oil.

'As the VMAT method of recycling does not require bringing the lubricants to a high temperature, the end product of clear oil is free of the foul mercaptan  odour in the distilled oil. The creative adoption of a vibration technology in VMAT also prevents  clogging up, and thus  maintains a steady oil throughput that is essential for economic and effective filtration.

'This recycling process is environmentally  friendly with zero waste. The clear oil coming out of

VMAT, when mixed with appropriate additives, can be reused as a motor lubricant or pressure transmission oil. The residue of the VMAT is a concentrate which can be used as asphalt extender, enabling road-surfacing materials to withstand temperature variations.

'Occupying an area of only 100 square metres, the basic VMAT system does not take up a large amount of space.  The VMAT recycling processes are managed by PLC (programmable logic controller). The automated process management is expected to withstand the abuses of the abrasive environment of the factory floor. VMAT can also be monitored and supported remotely as the controller is equipped with a network interface.'



Good vibrations for engineers