EP4732220A1

EP4732220A1 - Methods and systems enabling circularity for machine fluids

Info

Publication number: EP4732220A1
Application number: EP24732700.0A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Thorsten Dikmann; Nicole Graf
Original assignee: BASF SE
Current assignee: BASF SE
Priority date: 2023-06-20
Filing date: 2024-06-17
Publication date: 2026-04-29
Also published as: CN121399634A; WO2024260923A1

Abstract

Disclosed are methods, apparatuses, systems and re-use instructions or control data configured to control re-use of at least one used machine fluid as well as chemical material(s) produced from the at least one used machine fluid by using the control data. The invention further relates to methods, systems, apparatuses, and computer elements for sorting machine fluid waste in a data driven manner via a decentral network.

Description

METHODS AND SYSTEMS ENABLING CIRCULARITY FOR MACHINE FLUIDS

TECHNICAL FIELD

Disclosed are methods, apparatuses, systems and re-use instructions or control data configured to control re-use of at least one used machine fluid as well as chemical material(s) produced from at least one used machine fluid by using the control data. The invention further relates to methods, systems, apparatuses, and computer elements for sorting machine fluid waste in a data driven manner via a decentral network.

TECHNICAL BACKGROUND

Machine fluids are used in diverse applications and end up in multiple supply chains. Used machine fluids are not easily re-useable. This hampers to reliably refeed used machine fluids into re-use chains and the built up of circular ecosystems.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In an aspect the disclosure relates to a method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for monitoring a machine fluid during a use of a machine containing said machine fluid, the method comprising:

• providing at least one use trigger including at least one decentral machine identifier associated with the machine fluid,

• gathering via the at least one decentral machine identifier status data associated with the machine fluid,

• providing one or more decentral machine fluid identifier(s) associated with the status data,

• generating one or more digital representation(s) of the status data, in particular wherein the digital representation(s) include(s) a representation for accessing the status data,

• generating an access element including the one or more decentral machine fluid identifier(s) and the one or more digital representation(s),

• providing the access element to a decentral network for access to the status data by one or more data consuming network node(s) of a decentral network under control of a data providing network node associated with the producer of the machine fluid, in particular wherein the status data is stored in a database associated with the producer of the machine fluid and access to such database is controlled by the producer of the machine fluid via the data providing network node.

In a further aspect the disclosure relates to an apparatus for monitoring a machine fluid during a use of a machine containing said machine fluid, the apparatus comprising:

• a trigger generator configured to generate at least one use trigger including at least one decentral machine identifier associated with the machine fluid, • a decentral network interface configured to gather via the at least one decentral machine identifier status data associated with the machine fluid,

• an identifier provider configured to gather one or more decentral machine fluid identifier(s) associated with the status data,

• a representation generator configured to generate one or more digital representation(s) of the status data, in particular wherein the digital representation(s) include(s) a representation for accessing the status data,

• an access element generator configured to generate an access element including the one or more decentral machine fluid identifier(s) and the one or more digital representation(s),

• a decentral network interface configured to provide the access element to a decentral network for access to the status data by one or more data consuming network node(s) of a decentral network under control of a data providing network node associated with the producer of the machine fluid, in particular wherein the status data is stored in a database associated with the producer of the machine fluid and access to such database is controlled by the producer of the machine fluid via the data providing network node.

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for monitoring a machine fluid during a use of a machine containing said machine fluid, the method comprising:

• providing at least one use trigger including at least one decentral machine identifier associated with the machine and including status data associated with the machine fluid,

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to an apparatus for monitoring a machine fluid during a use of a machine containing said machine fluid, the apparatus comprising: a trigger provider configured to provide at least one use trigger including at least one decentral machine identifier associated with the machine and including status data associated with the machine fluid, • an identifier provider configured to gather one or more decentral machine fluid identifier(s) associated with the status data,

• a representation generator configured to generate one or more digital representation(s) of the status data, in particular wherein the digital representation(s) include(s) a representation for accessing the status data

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for accessing status data related to a monitoring of a machine fluid used within a machine, the method comprising:

• providing at least one decentral machine identifier associated with the machine,

• gathering one or more access element(s) generated and/or provided according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein via the provided decentral machine identifier, in particular wherein the one or more access element(s) are gathered via a decentral network,

• requesting access to the status data from a producer of the machine fluid, in particular based on the gathered one or more access element(s).

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to an apparatus for accessing status data related to a monitoring of a machine fluid used within a machine, the apparatus comprising:

• an identifier providing interface configured to provide a decentral identifier associated with the machine,

• an access element retriever configured to gather one or more access elements generated and/or provided according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein via the provided decentral machine identifier, in particular wherein the one or more access element(s) are gathered via a decentral network,

• an access requestor configured to request access to the status data from a producer of the machine fluid, in particular based on the gathered one or more access element(s).

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a decentral network node configured to provide an access element according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein or a decentral network node configured to access status data according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein. In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a machine fluid associated with the access element generated and provided according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein.

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for generating maintenance data associated with a maintenance of a used machine fluid, wherein the machine fluid is used within a machine, the method comprising:

• gathering by a decentral network node machine fluid data including status data associated with the used machine fluid from a decentral network node based on the provided decentral machine identifier(s), wherein the status data is accessed according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein,

• generating maintenance data by correlating the gathered machine fluid data with the accessed status data,

• providing the generated maintenance data for maintenance of the used machine fluid.

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to an apparatus for generating maintenance data associated with a maintenance of a used machine fluid, wherein the machine fluid is used within a machine, the method comprising:

• an identifier providing interface configured to provide at least one decentral machine identifier associated with the machine,

• a decentral network interface configured to gather machine fluid data including status data associated with the used machine fluid from a decentral network node based on the provided decentral machine identifier(s), wherein the status data is accessed according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein,

• a maintenance data generator configured to generate maintenance data by correlating the gathered machine fluid data with the accessed status data,

• a data provider configured to provide the generated maintenance data for maintenance of the used machine fluid.

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a use of maintenance data as generated according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein for controlling a maintenance of a used machine fluid.

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for performing one or more re-use operation(s) on a used machine fluid, wherein the machine fluid is used within a machine, the method comprising:

• providing at least one decentral machine identifier associated with the machine, • gathering status data associated with the used machine fluid according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein,

• generating control data by correlating the gathered status data with one or more apparatuses configured to perform re-use operation(s) on the used machine fluid and by generating machine- readable instructions for controlling a re-use by the one or more apparatus(es) configured to perform the re-use operation(s),

• providing the generated control data including the machine-readable instructions for performing one or more re-use operation(s) on the used machine fluid by the one or more apparatus(es) configured to perform the re-use operation(s).

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to an apparatus for performing one or more re-use operation(s) on a used machine fluid, wherein the machine fluid is used within a machine, the apparatus comprising:

• a decentral network interface configured to gather status data related to the used machine fluid according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein,

• a control data generator configured to generate control data by correlating the gathered status with one or more apparatuses configured to perform re-use operation(s) on the used machine fluid and by generating machine-readable instructions for controlling a re-use by the one or more apparatus(es) configured to perform the re-use operation(s),

• a data provider configured to provide the generated control data including the machine-readable instructions for performing one or more re-use operation(s) on the used machine fluid by the one or more apparatus(es) configured to perform the re-use operation(s).

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a system for performing one or more re-use operation(s) on a used machine fluid, the system comprising:

• an apparatus for performing on or more re-use operation(s) on a used machine fluid as disclosed herein, and

• at least one of the following apparatuses configured to receive the control data generated according to the methods as disclosed herein: o a chemical and/or physical treatment apparatus for cleaning the used machine fluid, o a chemical and/or physical treatment apparatus for recovering chemical material from the used machine fluid.

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to one or more chemical material(s) produced from the at least one used machine fluid by using the control data generated according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein or by the system(s) as disclosed herein In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a cleaned machine fluid produced from the at least one used machine fluid by using the control data generated according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein.

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a use of the control data provided according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein to control re-use of at least one used machine fluid, and/or to refeed chemical material recovered from at least one used machine fluid into one or more chemical production process(es).

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for sorting waste machine fluids, the method comprising the steps of:

• detecting at least one identifier element per machine including at least one waste machine fluid, wherein the at least one identifier element is related to at least one decentral machine identifier associated with each machine containing the waste machine fluid(s);

• providing the decentral machine identifier(s) associated with the machine(s) and gathering - based on the decentral machine identifier - machine fluid data, wherein the machine fluid data is gathered based on the provided decentral machine identifier by one or more network node(s) of a decentral network;

• assigning the waste machine fluid based on the gathered machine fluid data to one or more machine fluid waste fraction(s), wherein the one or more machine fluid waste fraction(s) relate to waste fraction(s) to be processed by o a defined machine fluid producer o a physical recycling process and/or o a chemical recycling process and/or o a recycling process involving physical and chemical treatment(s) and/or o a thermal recycling process;

• generating, based on the assigned machine fluid waste fraction, sorting data for sorting the waste machine fluid to the assigned machine fluid waste fraction(s);

• providing the generated sorting data for sorting the waste machine fluid to the assigned machine fluid waste fraction (s).

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to an apparatus for sorting waste machine fluids, the apparatus comprising:

• an identifier reader configured to detect at least one identifier element per machine including at least one waste machine fluid, wherein the at least one identifier element is related to at least one decentral machine identifier associated with each machine containing the waste machine fluid(s);

• a decentral network interface configured to provide the decentral machine identifier(s) associated with the machine(s) and to gather - based on the decentral machine identifier - machine fluid data, wherein the machine fluid data is gathered based on the provided decentral machine identifier by one or more network node(s) of a decentral network;

• a fractioning unit configured to assign the waste machine fluid based on the machine fluid data to one or more machine fluid waste fraction(s), wherein the one or more machine fluid waste fraction(s) relate to waste fraction (s) to be processed by o a defined machine fluid producer o a physical recycling process and/or o a chemical recycling process and/or o a recycling process involving physical and chemical treatment(s) and/or o a thermal recycling process;

• a sorting data generator configured to generate, based on the assigned machine fluid waste fraction, sorting data for sorting the waste machine fluid to the assigned machine fluid waste fraction(s);

• an interface configured to provide the generated sorting data for sorting the waste machine fluid to the assigned machine fluid waste fraction(s).

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a system for sorting waste machine fluids, the system comprising:

• a decentral network interface including o an identifier reader configured to detect at least one identifier element per machine including at least one waste machine fluid, wherein the at least one identifier element is related to at least one decentral machine identifier associated with each machine containing the waste machine flu id (s); o a decentral network interface configured to provide the decentral machine identifier(s) associated with the machine(s) and to gather - based on the decentral machine identifier - machine fluid data, wherein the machine fluid data is gathered based on the provided decentral machine identifier by one or more network node(s) of a decentral network;

• a sorting data generating unit including o a fractioning unit configured to assign the waste machine fluid based on the machine fluid data to one or more machine fluid waste fraction(s), wherein the one or more machine fluid waste fraction(s) relate to waste fraction(s) to be processed by

■ a defined machine fluid producer

■ a physical recycling process and/or

■ a chemical recycling process and/or

■ a recycling process involving physical and chemical treatment(s) and/or

■ a thermal recycling process; o a sorting data generator configured to generate, based on the assigned machine fluid waste fraction, sorting data for sorting the waste machine fluid to the assigned machine fluid waste fraction(s); o an interface configured to provide the generated sorting data for sorting the waste machine fluid to the assigned machine fluid waste fraction(s).

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a method for controlling and/or sorting waste machine fluids, the method comprising the steps of:

• gathering, based on one or more decentral machine identifier(s) associated with a machine containing the waste machine fluid(s), machine fluid data, wherein the machine fluid data is gathered based on the provided decentral machine identifier(s) by one or more network node(s) of a decentral network;

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to an apparatus for controlling and/or sorting waste machine fluids, the apparatus comprising:

• a fraction unit configured to o gather, based on one or more decentral machine identifier(s) associated with a machine containing the waste machine fluid(s), machine fluid data, wherein the machine fluid data is gathered based on the provided decentral machine identifier(s) by one or more network node(s) of a decentral network; and o assign the waste machine fluid based on the gathered machine fluid data to one or more machine fluid waste fraction(s), wherein the one or more machine fluid waste fraction(s) relate to waste fraction(s) to be processed by

■ a defined machine fluid producer

■ a physical recycling process and/or

■ a chemical recycling process and/or

■ a recycling process involving physical and chemical treatment(s) and/or

■ a thermal recycling process;

• a sorting data generator configured to generate, based on the assigned machine fluid waste fraction, sorting data for sorting the waste machine fluid to the assigned machine fluid waste fraction(s); • an interface configured to provide the generated sorting data for sorting the waste machine fluid to the assigned machine fluid waste fraction(s).

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a method for controlling a machine fluid waste fraction sorted according to the methods disclosed herein, wherein machine fluid data is aggregated to waste fraction machine fluid data per sorted waste fraction, preferably wherein a decentral waste fraction machine fluid identifier is assigned to the waste fraction machine fluid data, wherein the decentral waste fraction machine fluid identifier associated with the sorted fraction is provided for access by one or more decentral network node(s) of the decentral network.

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to an apparatus for controlling a machine fluid waste fraction sorted by the apparatuses disclosed herein, wherein the apparatus further includes a data aggregator configured to aggregate machine fluid data to waste fraction machine fluid data per sorted waste fraction, preferably wherein the apparatus includes a decentral network interface configured to assign a decentral waste fraction machine fluid identifier to the waste fraction machine fluid data and to provide the decentral waste fraction machine fluid identifier associated with the sorted fraction for access by one or more decentral network node(s) of the decentral network.

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a decentral data consuming network node configured to provide the machine fluid data for sorting or controlling the sorting according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses or systems disclosed herein.

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a decentral data providing network node configured to provide waste fraction machine fluid data generated according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses or systems disclosed herein.

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a machine fluid waste fraction associated with a decentral waste fraction machine fluid identifier relating to waste fraction machine fluid data characterizing the machine fluid waste fraction and generated according to the methods for controlling a machine fluid waste fraction or by the apparatus for controlling a machine fluid waste fraction.

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a classification instruction configured to receive machine fluid data and to relate the machine fluid data to a machine fluid waste fraction to be processed by a defined machine fluid producer, a physical recycling process, a chemical recycling process, a recycling process involving physical and chemical treatment(s) and/or a thermal recycling process, wherein the classification instructions are usable in the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein.

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a decentral classification instruction providing network node associated with one or more machine fluid producer(s) and/or one or more consumers of recyclate produced by recycling waste machine fluid(s) configured to provide classification instructions, wherein the classification instructions are configured to receive machine fluid data and to relate the machine fluid data to a machine fluid waste fraction to be processed by a defined machine fluid producer, a physical recycling process, a chemical recycling process, a recycling process involving physical and chemical treatment(s) and/or a thermal recycling process, wherein the classification instructions are used in the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses disclosed herein.

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a use of machine fluid data for sorting waste machine fluid(s) into one or more machine fluid waste fraction(s) or for controlling sorting of waste machine fluid(s) into one or more machine fluid waste fraction(s) according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses or systems disclosed herein.

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a use of waste fraction machine fluid data associated with a machine fluid waste fraction and generated according to the methods disclosed herein or by the apparatuses or systems disclosed herein for recycling of the machine fluid waste fraction.

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a computer element, such as a computer readable storage medium, a computer program, or a computer program product, comprising instructions, which when executed by a computing node or a computing system, direct the computing node or computing system to carry out the steps of the computer-implemented methods disclosed herein.

In yet a further aspect the disclosure relates to a computer element, such as a computer readable storage medium, a computer program, or a computer program product, comprising instructions, which when executed by the apparatuses or systems disclosed herein, direct the apparatuses or systems to carry out steps the apparatuses or systems disclosed herein are configured to execute.

Any disclosure, embodiments and examples described herein relate to the methods, the systems, apparatuses, products, chemical materials, instructions, uses, consuming services, providing services, and computer elements lined out above and below lined out above and below. Advantageously, the benefits provided by any of the embodiments and examples equally apply to all other embodiments and examples.

Embodiments

To improve re-use, such as maintenance or recycling, of used machine fluids and to increase the time a machine fluid is used within a machine prior to performing re-use operations or exchange of the machine fluid, the sharing of status data signifying at least one property of the used machine fluid in its used state is crucial. However, to date data sharing in machine ecosystems including machine fluids is not standardized by way of communication protocols to control access to such data by participants of the machine ecosystem. Decentral networks allow for controlled peer-to-peer communication between participants of the machine ecosystem. By making at least one property of the used machine fluid in its used state, e.g. status data, available in a standardized way, more efficient and reliable re-use of the machine fluids can be ensured by accessing such data to determine next maintenance dates and/or required re-use operation(s) to be performed. This allows to increase the time a machine fluid is used within the machine since it avoids exchange of machine fluid according to fixed maintenance schedules which do not consider the actual wear of the machine fluid during its use. This also allows to determine appropriate re-use operations, such as cleaning operations, to prolong the lifetime of the machine fluid within the machine, and/or recycling operations to ensure recovery of chemical material(s) from the machine fluid, hence avoiding waste generation and enabling circularity of machine fluids or components thereof.

By gathering status data and providing access to such status data via access elements through a decentral network, sharing of such status data with participants of the machine fluid chain or loop performing re-use operations is enabled. In particular, by providing such status data relevant to selected participants, such as to maintenance providers, provides status data owners, such as machine fluid producers, with the required control over sensitive machine fluid monitoring data. In particular, by providing such status data relevant to the re-use operation(s) to be performed allows for more targeted data sharing resulting in more reliable and efficient re-use of the machine fluid.

By providing access to status data via access elements, specifics of the used machine fluid can be considered during determination of maintenance data to minimize environmental impact, e.g. to decrease the amount of waste machine fluid by prolonging the lifetime the machine fluid can be used within the machine. By combining status data with machine fluid data, maintenance interval(s) and or maintenance operation(s) to be performed may be determined based on the current wear of the used machine fluid, allowing to minimize environmental impact of the machine fluid by tailoring the maintenance to the wear of the used machine fluid without negatively impacting the performance of the machine.

By providing access to status data via access elements, specifics of the used machine fluid can be considered during control of the re-use process to minimize environmental impact, e.g. to decrease the amount of waste machine fluid by prolonging the lifetime the machine fluid and/or by determining appropriate recycling process(es). By correlating status data reflecting the current wear of the used machine fluid to apparatus(es) configured to re-use (e.g. clean or recycle) the used machine fluid, more efficient re-use, e.g. cleaning or recycling, of the machine fluid can be achieved. This allows to reduce the environmental impact of machine fluid flows within the machine ecosystem.

By accessing the machine fluid data associated with waste machine fluids (e.g. including status data signifying at least one property of the used machine fluid in its used state) based on the decentral machine identifier per machine containing waste machine fluids from one or more network node(s) of a decentral network and assigning the one or waste machine fluid(s) based on the gathered machine fluid data to one or more machine fluid waste fraction(s), the quality of the machine fluid waste fractions can be controlled in a simple and reliable manner. Furthermore, by specifically defining the sorting by machine fluid waste fractions that relate to a machine fluid waste fraction to be processed by a defined machine fluid producer, a physical recycling process and/or a chemical recycling process and/or a recycling process involving physical and chemical treatment(s) and/or a thermal recycling process, the machine fluid waste fraction can be tailored to the adequate recycling process. This way the recycling of machine fluids can be improved by increasing the quantity of machine fluids refeedable into material loops. As a result, the environmental impact of machine fluids can be reduced.

Hence, by gathering status data signifying at least one property of the used machine fluid in its used state and providing access to status such data via access elements through a decentral network, a circular machine fluid system may be enabled, reducing the environmental impact of machine fluid flows within the machine ecosystem.

In the following, embodiments of the present disclosure will be outlined by ways of examples. It is to be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to said embodiments and/or examples.

Machine fluids may include any liquid substance commonly used to operate a machine. The machine fluids may be contained within the machine or parts thereof. The substance may be liquid at room temperature under ambient pressure or at temperatures present during operation of the machine. Used machine fluids may include machine fluids present within a used machine, e.g. a machine having been operated at least once. Operation of the machine results in use of the machine fluid within the machine (e.g. within parts of the machine) such that the machine fluid may be considered use. Use of the machine fluid may result in deterioration of the chemical and/or physical properties of the machine fluid, for example by contamination and/or decomposition. Contamination may occur upon contact of the machine fluid with other machine fluids or parts of the machine during use. Decomposition may occur by subjecting the machine fluid to high temperatures occurring during the use of the machine.

Machines may be stationary machines or movable machines. The stationary or movable machines may be driven by spark-ignited or self-ignition engines, two- or four stroke engines, electrical engines, fuel cells or combinations thereof (hybrid engines). Stationary machines may include air conditioning devices, power units (nuclear, coal, natural gas, oil, wind, water, solar thermal, geothermal), generators, pumps, hydraulic power units, wind turbines, transformer station, thermal heat pumps, and compressors. Movable machines may include vehicles. Vehicles may include motor vehicles. Examples of motor vehicles may include motorcycles, cars, trucks, buses, vans, minivans, ATV (all-terrain vehicles) and mobility scooters for disabled people). Vehicles may include railed vehicles. Examples of railed vehicles may include trains and trams. Vehicles may include watercraft vehicles. Examples of watercraft vehicles may include ships, boats and underwater vehicles. Vehicles may include amphibious vehicles. Examples of amphibious vehicles may include screw-propelled vehicles and hovercraft. Vehicles may include aircrafts. Examples of aircrafts may include airplanes, helicopters and aerostats. Vehicles may include spacecraft. The machines may correspond to end-products of the product ecosystem.

An identifier element may be associated with or connected to the machine. An identifier element may be associated with or connected to the machine fluid or the packaging of the machine fluid. The identifier element may be associated with or connected to the machine or the machine fluid at least on production of the machine or machine fluid, respectively. Through the identifier element the digital twin of the machine or machine fluid may be accessible through the decentral network. The digital twin of the machine may include the status data. The digital twin of the machine fluid may include the status data. The digital twin of the machine fluid may include further data related to the machine fluid (denoted as machine fluid data hereinafter). The digital twin may include one or more data set(s). The one or more data set(s) may include status data. The one or more data set(s) may include machine fluid data. The one or more data set(s) may be associated with the respective decentral identifier (e.g. decentral machine identifier or decentral machine fluid identifier). The one or more data set(s) may include or be associated with data set identifier(s). This allows to uniquely identify a data set of a digital twin. The identifier element may uniquely relate to the machine or machine fluid. The identifier element may uniquely relate to the digital machine or machine fluid identifier. The digital machine or machine fluid identifier may uniquely relate to the machine or machine fluid. This way status data and machine fluid data may be provided per machine/machine fluid or for individual machines/machine fluids. The machine identifier may include one or more decentral machine identifier(s) uniquely related to the machine. The machine identifier may include one or more decentral machine fluid identifier(s) uniquely related to the machine fluid. The machine identifier may relate to one or more decentral machine identifier(s) signifying the digital twin of the physical entity of the machine. The machine fluid identifier may relate to one or more decentral machine fluid identifier(s) signifying the digital twin of the physical entity of the machine fluid. The decentral machine identifier and the decentral machine fluid identifier may be a digital identifier of or for the decentral network. The decentral machine identifier and the decentral machine fluid identifier may be a digital identifier provided to the decentral network and participant nodes of the decentral network. The decentral machine identifier may hence signify physical entities of machines in the decentral network and participant nodes may be able to interpret the relation of the decentral machine identifier to the physical entities of machines of the material chain. The decentral machine fluid identifier may hence signify physical entities of machine fluids in the decentral network and participant nodes may be able to interpret the relation of the decentral machine fluid identifier to the physical entities of machine fluids of the material chain.

The decentral machine identifier may comprise any unique identifier uniquely associated with the machine. The decentral machine identifier may include one or more Universally Unique Identifier(s) (UUID) or a Digital Identifier(s) (DID). The decentral machine identifier may be issued by a central or decentral identity issuer. The decentral machine identifier may include authentication information. Via the decentral machine identifier and its unique association with the with the machine access to machine data including status data may be controlled by the machine producer. This contrasts with central authority schemes, where identifiers are provided by such central authority and access to data is controlled by such central authority. Decentral in this context refers to the usage of the decentral identifier(s) as controlled by the data owner, such as the machine owner or the machine producer.

The decentral machine identifier may include one or more identifier(s) used in the decentral network and allowing for data exchange via the decentral network. Data exchange may include discovery of the decentral machine identifier for network nodes of the decentral network, authentication of network nodes of the decentral network and/or authorization of data transfers via a peer-to-peer communication between network nodes of the decentral network. The decentral machine identifier may be associated with participants of a material chain, particularly the material loop, including input material supplier, machine fluid producer, machine producer, machine user, end-of-life machine collector and/or end-of-life machine recycler. The decentral machine identifier may be associated with material entities of a material chain, particularly the material loop, including input material, machine fluid and/or the machine.

The status data may signify the status of the machine fluid in its used state (e.g. the used machine fluid). The status data associated with the used machine fluid may relate to characteristics of the used machine fluid and optionally the used machine. The status data may relate to physical and/or chemical characteristics of the used machine fluid and optionally the used machine. The status data may include measurement data collected by one or more sensors. The measurement data may include transmission data and/or viscosity data. The transmission data may be analyzed to provide status data, such as the degree of impurities. The viscosity data may be analyzed to provide status data, such as the degree of wear. The status data may relate to the age of the used machine fluid, hours of operation of the machine and machine fluid, milage of the machine, previous maintenance operation(s) performed on the used machine fluid or combinations thereof.

The decentral machine fluid identifier may comprise any unique identifier uniquely associated with the machine fluid. The decentral machine fluid identifier may include one or more Universally Unique Identifier(s) (UUID) or a Digital Identifier(s) (DID). The decentral machine fluid identifier may be issued by a central or decentral identity issuer. The decentral machine fluid identifier may include authentication information. Via the decentral machine fluid identifier and its unique association with the with the machine fluid access to machine fluid data, such as status data, may be controlled by the machine fluid producer.

The decentral machine fluid identifier may include one or more identifier(s) used in the decentral network and allowing for data exchange via the decentral network. The decentral machine fluid identifier may be associated with participants of a material chain, particularly the material loop, including input material supplier, machine fluid producer, machine producer, machine user, end-of-life machine collector and/or end-of-life machine recycler. The decentral machine fluid identifier may be associated with material entities of a material chain, particularly the material loop, including input material, machine fluid and/or the machine.

The decentral machine identifier and the decentral machine fluid identifier may be digital identifier(s). Hence, the decentral machine identifier and the decentral machine fluid identifier may not correspond to physical identifier(s) physically attached to the machine fluid (such as the packaging of the machine fluid, and the machine, respectively.

Gathering data may include retrieving or receiving the respective data, such as machine fluid data and status data.

The machine fluid may be associated with the access element via the decentral machine fluid identifier. The access element may include the digital representation of the status data, authentication mechanism(s) and/or the decentral machine fluid identifier(s). The access element may be generated for the gathered status data or a part thereof. For instance, the access element may be generated for at least part of the data set(s) generated from the gathered status data. The digital representation of the status data may be provided to the decentral network. The digital representation of the status data may be provided by a decentral network node associated with a dedicated storage of the machine fluid producer. The dedicated storage may store the status data or data set(s) generated from the status data. The dedicated storage may be under control of or controlled by the data owner of the status data, such as the machine fluid producer. The data owner may control access to the dedicated storage. Access may be controlled via the decentral network node associated with such storage. The digital representation may include a representation of status data or parts thereof (e.g. data set(s) including status data). The digital representation may include a locator or pointer to a dedicated storage or dedicated storage address associated with the machine fluid producer. The pointer or locator may point directly to the dedicated storage or storage address. The pointer or locator may point to a data providing network node associated with the dedicated storage. This may increase data security since the dedicated storage address is not published to further participants of the decentral network hence avoiding the risk of direct access of the dedicated storage without access control via the decentral data providing network node. The digital representation may include one or more digital link(s) pointing to the status data. The digital representation(s) may include a locator or pointer, such as am url or uri, to a dedicated storage address associated with the machine fluid producer and storing the status data. The digital representation may include a representation for accessing the status data or parts thereof.

The one or more authentication mechanisms may be associated with the decentral machine fluid identifier and the digital representation. The access element may relate to one or more authorization mechanisms associated with the decentral machine fluid identifier and a data set including at least part of the machine fluid monitoring data. The one or more authorization mechanisms may include authorization rules determining if access to the machine fluid monitoring data is granted. The one or more authorization mechanisms may be associated with the data providing network node associated with the machine fluid producer.

The machine ecosystem may include different chains including manufacturing, use and re-use. In these chains, one or more ecosystem participant(s) may contribute to the manufacture, use or re-use of the machine and machine fluid. For example, the production chain may include raw material manufacturers, machine fluid manufactures and/or machine manufacturers. Further for example, the use chain may include machine user, machine maintainers and/or machine distributors. Further for example, the re-use chain may include collectors, sorters, recyclers and/or re-furbishers.

The participants of the machine ecosystem may be connected via a decentral network. The decentral network may include one or more decentral network node(s) configured to perform data transactions. The decentral network node(s) may be associated with participants of the product ecosystem. The data transactions may be based on a transaction protocol including authentication and/or authorization mechanism(s). Based on the authentication and/or authorization mechanism(s) a peer-to-peer network between decentral network node(s) of the decentral network may be established.

The one or more authentication mechanism(s) may be associated with or linked to the decentral identifiers (e.g. the decentral machine identifier and/or the decentral machine fluid identifier). The one or more authentication mechanism(s) associated with the decentral identifiers may be provided to decentral network node(s). The one or more authentication mechanism(s) associated with the decentral identifiers may be accessible by decentral network node(s). The decentral configuration allows for more efficient use of computing resources and strengthens control by each data owner of the decentral network.

Data providing network node(s) may be configured to provide access to data stored in a dedicated storage associated with the respective data providing network node(s). The data providing network node may be associated with a participant of the production chain of the machine, such as the producer of the machine fluid and the producer of the machine. The data generated by the participants of the production chain per production stage of the production chain may be provided by the data providing network node to the decentral network, in particular for access by data consuming network node(s). The access to the data may be under control of the respective data providing network node associated with said data. The data providing network node may be configured to authenticate the data consuming network node and/or to authorize access to the data by the data consuming network node.

Data consuming network node(s) may be configured to request access to data stored in a dedicated storage associated with the data providing network node(s). The data consuming network node may be associated with a participant of the production chain, such as the machine fluid producer and machine producer, and/or a participant of the use chain, such as the machine maintainers. The data generated by the participants of the production chain per production stage of the production chain may be accessed by the data consuming network node(s) upon authentication and/or authorization. Waste machine fluids may include machine fluids which can no longer be used within the machine as intended and hence need to be exchanged. The waste machine fluids may be sorted by machine maintenance facilities and/or may be provided to sorting facilities for sorting. Sorting of waste machine fluids may provide machine fluid waste fraction(s). Machine fluid waste fraction(s) may include machine fluids sorted by machine fluid(s) of one or more type(s). The waste fraction may be tailored to a specific machine fluid producer (e.g. may only contain a machine fluid type produced by said producer) or recycling process(es). Machine fluid waste fraction(s) may relate to a machine fluid waste fraction to be processed by a physical recycling process (e.g. a recycling process including physical treatments, such as separation, distillation, etc.). Machine fluid waste fraction(s) may relate to a machine fluid waste fraction to be processed by a chemical recycling process (a recycling process including involving chemical reactions performed on the waste machine fluid, etc.). Machine fluid waste fraction(s) may relate to a machine fluid waste fraction to be processed by a physical and chemical recycling process. Machine fluid waste fraction(s) may relate to a machine fluid waste fraction to be processed by a thermal recycling process.

The sorting data for sorting waste machine fluids to the assigned machine fluid waste fraction may include control signals for controlling a sorting equipment configured to separate waste machine fluids into machine fluid waste fractions. The sorting data for sorting waste machine fluids to the assigned machine fluid waste fraction may include sorting instructions provided to an application used by a user, such as a machine maintenance facility. The fraction control data may relate to individual machine fluids. The fraction control data may relate individual machine fluids to a specific machine fluid waste fraction. The machine fluid waste fractions may relate to spatially separated fractions for sorting the waste machine fluids.

The identifier element per machine may relate to at least one decentral machine identifier associated with the machine containing the waste machine fluid. The identifier element may include any physical arrangement that associates the machine identifier with the machine. The identifier element may comprise a passive or active element, e.g. QR-code, RFID-tag, but is not limited thereto. The identifier element may be a physical identifier physically connected to the machine or at least one component of the machine. The identifier element may include markers embedded in materials, a bar code, a QR-Code, a tag like a RFID tag or similar physical arrangement that allows to digitally identify the machine.

The identifier element may uniquely relate to the machine. The identifier element may uniquely relate to the digital machine identifier. The digital machine identifier may uniquely relate to the machine. This way machine fluid data may be provided per machine or for individual machines. The machine identifier may include one or more decentral machine identifier(s) uniquely related to the machine as previously described. The machine identifier may be associated with the one or more decentral machine identifier(s). In an embodiment, the machine fluid is selected from the group consisting of lubricants, engine coolants and hydraulic fluids. The engine coolant may be a heat exchanger medium. The hydraulic fluid may be a brake fluid.

The lubricant is usually a substance capable of reducing friction between surfaces (preferably metal surfaces), such as surfaces of mechanical devices or machines. A mechanical device may be a mechanism consisting of a device that works on mechanical principles, such as the machines previously described. The lubricant is usually a lubricating liquid, lubricating oil or lubricating grease.

The lubricant may be used for various applications such as light, medium and heavy duty engine oils, industrial engine oils, marine engine oils, automotive engine oils, crankshaft oils, compressor oils, refrigerator oils, hydrocarbon compressor oils, very low-temperature lubricating oils and fats, high temperature lubricating oils and fats, wire rope lubricants, textile machine oils, refrigerator oils, aviation and aerospace lubricants, aviation turbine oils, transmission oils, gas turbine oils, spindle oils, spin oils, traction fluids, transmission oils, plastic transmission oils, passenger car transmission oils, truck transmission oils, industrial transmission oils, industrial gear oils, insulating oils, instrument oils, brake fluids, transmission liquids, shock absorber oils, heat distribution medium oils, transformer oils, fats, chain oils, minimum quantity lubricants for metalworking operations, oil to the warm and cold working, oil for water-based metalworking liquids, oil for neat oil metalworking fluids, oil for semi-synthetic metalworking fluids, oil for synthetic metalworking fluids, drilling detergents for the soil exploration, hydraulic oils, in biodegradable lubricants or lubricating greases or waxes, chain saw oils, release agents, molding fluids, gun, pistol and rifle lubricants or watch lubricants and food grade approved lubricants.

The lubricant may have a kinematic viscosity at 40 °C of at least 10, 50, 100, 150, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 900, 1400, or 2000 mm²/s. In another form the lubricant may have a kinematic viscosity at 40 °C from 200 to 30 000 mm²/s (cSt), preferably from 500 to 10 000 mm²/s, and in particular from 1000 to 5000 mm²/s.

The lubricant may have a kinematic viscosity at 100 °C of at least 2, 3, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50 mm²/s. In another form the lubricant may have a kinematic viscosity at 100 °C from 10 to 5000 mm²/s (cSt), preferably from 30 to 3000 mm²/s, and in particular from 50 to 2000 mm2/s

The lubricant may have a viscosity index (VI) of at least 150, 160, 170, 180, 190 or 200.

The lubricant may comprise a lubricant base oil and one or more lubricant additive(s). The lubricant may comprise > 50 % to < 99 % by weight or > 80 % to < 99 % by weight or > 90 % to < 99 % by weight of the base oil, related to the total amount of the lubricant.

Suitable lubricant base oils may be selected from the group consisting of mineral oils (Group I, II or III oils), polyalphaolefins (Group IV oils), polymerized and interpolymerized olefins, alkyl naphthalenes, alkylene oxide polymers, silicone oils, phosphate esters and carboxylic acid esters (Group V oils). Definitions for the base oils are the same as those found in the American Petroleum Institute (API) publication "Engine Oil Licensing and Certification System", Industry Services Department, Fourteenth Edition, December 1996, Addendum 1 , December 1998. Said publication categorizes base oils as follows: a. Group I base oils contain less than 90 percent saturates (ASTM D 2007) and/or greater than 0.03 percent sulfur (ASTM D 2622) and have a viscosity index (ASTM D 2270) greater than or equal to 80 and less than 126. b. Group II base oils contain greater than or equal to 90 percent saturates and less than or equal to 0.03 percent sulfur and have a viscosity index greater than or equal to 80 and less than 126. c. Group III base oils contain greater than or equal to 90 percent saturates and less than or equal to 0.03 percent sulfur and have a viscosity index greater than or equal to 126. d. Group IV base oils contain polyalphaolefins. Polyalphaolefins (PAG) include known PAO materials which typically comprise relatively low molecular weight hydrogenated polymers or oligomers of alphaolefins which include but are not limited to C2 to about C32 alphaole-fins with the C8 to about C16 alphaolefins, such as 1-octene, 1 -decene, 1-dodecene and the like being preferred. The preferred polyalphaolefins are poly-1 -octene, poly-1 -decene, and poly-1 -dode-cene. e. Group V base oils contain any base oils not described by Groups I to IV. Examples of Group V base oils include alkyl naphthalenes, alkylene oxide polymers, silicone oils, carboxylic acid esters and phosphate esters.

Synthetic base oils may include hydrocarbon oils and halo-substituted hydrocarbon oils such as polymerized and interpolymerized olefins (e.g., polypropylenes, propylene-isobutylene copolymers, chlorinated polybutylenes, poly(1 -hexenes), poly(1 -octenes), poly(1 -decenes)); alkylbenzenes (e.g., dodecylbenzenes, tetradecylbenzenes, dinonylbenzenes, di(2-ethylhexyl)benzenes); poly-phenyls (e.g., biphenyls, terphenyls, alkylated polyphenols); and alkylated diphenyl ethers and alkylated diphenyl sulfides and derivative, analogs and homologs thereof.

Synthetic base oils may include alkylene oxide polymers and interpolymers and derivatives thereof where the terminal hydroxyl groups have been modified by esterification, etherification, etc.. These are exemplified by polyoxyalkylene polymers prepared by polymeriza-tion of ethylene oxide or propylene oxide, and the alkyl and aryl ethers of polyoxyalkylene polymers (e.g., methyl-polyisopropylene glycol ether having a molecular weight of 1000 or diphenyl ether of polyethylene glycol having a molecular weight of 1000 to 1500); and mono- and polycarboxylic esters thereof, for example, the acetic acid esters, mixed Cs-Ca fatty acid esters and C13 oxo acid diester of tetraethylene glycol.

Synthetic base oils may include silicon-based oils such as the polyalkyl-, polyaryl-, polyalkoxy- or polyaryloxysilicone oils and silicate oils Examples may include tetraethyl silicate, tetraisopropyl silicate, tetra-(2- ethylhexyl)silicate, tetra-(4-methyl-2-ethylhe-xyl) silicate, tetra-(p-tert-butyl-phenyl) silicate, hexa-(4-methyl-2-ethylhexyl)disiloxane, poly(methyl) siloxanes and poly(methylphenyl)siloxanes. Other synthetic base oils include liquid esters of phosphorous-containing acids (e.g., tricresyl phosphate, trioctyl phosphate, diethyl ester of decylphosphonic acid) and polymeric tetrahydrofurans.

Carboxylic acid esters base oils may include the esters of mono and polybasic acids with monoalkanols (simple esters) or with mixtures of mono and polyalkanols (complex esters), and the polyol esters of monocarboxylic acids (simple esters), or mixtures of mono and polycarboxylic acids (complex esters). Esters of the mono/polybasic type include, for example, the esters of monocarboxylic acids such as heptanoic acid, and dicarboxylic acids such as phthalic acid, succinic acid, alkyl succinic acid, alkenyl succinic acid, maleic acid, azelaic acid, suberic acid, sebacic acid, fumaric acid, adipic acid, linoleic acid dimer, malonic acid, alkyl malonic acid, alkenyl malonic acid, etc., with a variety of alcohols such as butyl alcohol, hexyl alcohol, dodecyl alcohol, 2-ethylhexyl alcohol, or mixtures thereof with polyalkanols, etc. Specific examples of these types of esters include nonyl heptanoate, dibutyl adipate, di(2-ethylhexyl) sebacate, di-n-hexyl fumarate, dioctyl sebacate, diisooctyl azelate, diisodecyl azelate, dioctyl phthalate, didecyl phthalate, dieicosyl sebacate, dibutyl -TMP- adipate, etc.

Suitable carboxylic acid esters base oils may be obtained by reacting one or more polyhydric alcohols, preferably the hindered polyols such as the neopentyl polyols, e.g. neopentyl glycol, trimethylol ethane, 2-methyl-2-propyl-1 ,3-propanediol, trimethylol propane, trimethylol butane, pentaerythritol and dipentaerythritol with monocarboxylic acids containing at least 4 carbons, normally the C5 to C30 acids such as saturated straight chain fatty acids including caprylic acid, capric acid, lauric acid, myristic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid, arachic acid, and behenic acid, or the corresponding branched chain fatty acids or unsaturated fatty acids such as oleic acid, or mixtures thereof, with polycarboxylic acids.

Lubricant additives may be selected from viscosity index improvers, polymeric thickeners, corrosion inhibitors, detergents, dispersants, anti-foam agents, dyes, wear protection additives, extreme pressure additives, anti-wear additives, friction modifiers, metal deactivators, pour point depressants, or demulsifiers. The total combined amount of the lubricant additive in the lubricant may include ranges of 0-25 wt.%, or 0.01-20 wt.%, or 0.1-15 wt.% or 0.5-10 wt.%, or 1-5 wt.% of the total amount of the lubricant.

The viscosity index improvers may include high molecular weight polymers that increase the relative viscosity of an oil at high temperatures more than they do at low temperatures. Viscosity index improvers include polyacrylates, polymethacrylates, alkylmethacrylates, vinylpyrrolidone/meth-acrylate copolymers, poly vinylpyrrolidones, polybutenes, olefin copolymers such as an ethylene-propylene copolymer or a styrene-butadiene copolymer or polyalkene such as PIB, styrene/acrylate copolymers and polyethers, and combinations thereof. The most common VI improvers are methacrylate polymers and copolymers, acrylate polymers, olefin polymers and copolymers, and styrenebutadiene copolymers. Other examples of the viscosity index improver include polymethacrylate, polyisobutylene, alpha-olefin polymers, alphaolefin copolymers (e.g., an ethylenepropylene copolymer), polyalkylstyrene, phenol condensates, naphthalene condensates, a styrenebutadiene copolymer and the like. Of these, polymethacrylate having a number average molecular weight of 10000 to 300000, and alpha-olefin polymers or alpha-olefin copolymers having a number average molecular weight of 1000 to 30000, particularly ethylene- alphaolefin copolymers having a number average molecular weight of 1000 to 10000 are preferred. The viscosity index increasing agents can be added and used individually or in the form of mixtures, conveniently in an amount within the range of from > 0.05 to < 20.0 % by weight, in relation to the weight of the base stock.

Suitable (polymeric) thickeners include, but are not limited to, polyisobutenes (PIB), oligomeric copolymers (OCPs), polymethacrylates (PMAs), copolymers of styrene and butadiene, or high viscosity esters (complex esters).

Corrosion inhibitors may include various oxygen-, nitrogen-, sulfur-, and phosphorus-containing materials, and may include metal-containing compounds (salts, organometallics, etc.) and nonmetalcontaining or ashless materials. Corrosion inhibitors may include, but are not limited to, additive types such as, for example, hydrocarbyl-, aryl-, alkyl-, arylalkyl-, and alkylaryl- versions of detergents (neutral, overbased), sulfonates, phenates, salicylates, alcoholates, carboxylates, salixarates, phosphites, phosphates, thiophosphates, amines, amine salts, amine phosphoric acid salts, amine sulfonic acid salts, alkoxylated amines, etheramines, polyetheramines, amides, imides, azoles, diazoles, triazoles, benzotriazoles, benzothiadoles, mercaptobenzothiazoles, tolyltriazoles (TTZ-type), heterocyclic amines, heterocyclic sulfides, thiazoles, thiadiazoles, mercaptothiadiazoles, dimercaptothiadiazoles (DMTD- type), imidazoles, benzimidazoles, dithiobenzimidazoles, imidazolines, oxazolines, Mannich reactions products, glycidyl ethers, anhydrides, carbamates, thiocarbamates, dithiocarbamates, polyglycols, etc., or mixtures thereof.

Detergents may include cleaning agents that adhere to dirt particles, preventing them from attaching to critical surfaces. Detergents may also adhere to the metal surface itself to keep it clean and prevent corrosion from occurring. Detergents include calcium alkylsalicylates, calcium alkylphenates and calcium alkarylsulfonates with alternate metal ions used such as magnesium, barium, or sodium. Examples of the cleaning and dispersing agents which can be used include metal-based detergents such as the neutral and basic alkaline earth metal sulphonates, alkaline earth metal phenates and alkaline earth metal salicylates alkenylsuccinimide and alkenylsuccinimide esters and their borohydrides, phenates, salienius complex detergents and ashless dispersing agents which have been modified with sulphur compounds. These agents can be added and used individually or in the form of mixtures, conveniently in an amount within the range of from > 0.01 to < 1 .0 % by weight in relation to the weight of the base stock; these can also be high total base number (TBN), low TBN, or mixtures of high/low TBN.

Dispersants are lubricant additives that help to prevent sludge, varnish and other deposits from forming on critical surfaces. The dispersant may be a succinimide dispersant (for example N-substituted long chain alkenyl succinimides), a Mannich dispersant, an ester-containing dispersant, a condensation product of a fatty hydrocarbyl monocarboxylic acylating agent with an amine or ammonia, an alkyl amino phenol dispersant, a hydrocarbyl-amine dispersant, a polyether dispersant or a polyetheramine dispersant. In one embodiment, the succinimide dispersant includes a polyisobutylene-substituted succinimide, wherein the polyisobutylene from which the dispersant is derived may have a number average molecular weight of about 400 to about 5000, or of about 950 to about 1600. In one embodiment, the dispersant includes a borated dispersant. Typically, the borated dispersant includes a succinimide dispersant including a polyisobutylene succinimide, wherein the polyisobutylene from which the dispersant is derived may have a number average molecular weight of about 400 to about 5000. Borated dispersants are described in more detail above within the extreme pressure agent description.

Anti-foam agents may be selected from silicones, polyacrylates, and the like. The amount of anti-foam agent in the lubricant compositions described herein may range from > 0.001 wt.-% to< 0.1 wt.-% based on the total weight of the formulation. As a further example, an anti-foam agent may be present in an amount from about 0.004 wt.-% to about 0.008 wt.-%.

Suitable extreme pressure agent include sulfur containing compounds. The sulfur-containing compound may be a sulfurised olefin, a polysulfide, or mixtures thereof. Examples of the sulfurised olefin include a sulfurised olefin derived from propylene, isobutylene, pentene; an organic sulfide and/or polysulfide including benzyldisulfide; bis-(chlorobenzyl) disulfide; dibutyl tetrasulfide; di-tertiary butyl polysulfide; and sulfurised methyl ester of oleic acid, a sulfurised alkylphenol, a sulfurised dipentene, a sulfurised terpene, a sulfurised Diels-Alder adduct, an alkyl sulphenyl N'N- dialkyl dithiocarbamates; or mixtures thereof. In one embodiment, the sulfurised olefin includes a sulfurised olefin derived from propylene, isobutylene, pentene or mixtures thereof. In one embodiment the extreme pressure additive sulfur-containing compound includes a dimercaptothiadiazole or derivative, or mixtures thereof. Examples of the dimercaptothiadiazole include compounds such as 2,5-dimercapto-1 ,3,4-thiadiazole or a hydrocarbyl- substituted 2, 5-dimercapto-1 ,3,4-thiadiazole, or oligomers thereof. The oligomers of hydrocarbyl- substituted 2, 5-dimercapto-1 ,3,4-thiadiazole typically form by forming a sulfur-sulfur bond between 2,5- dimercapto-1 ,3,4-thiadiazole units to form derivatives or oligomers of two or more of said thiadiazole units. Suitable 2, 5-dimercapto-1 ,3,4-thiadiazole derived compounds include for example 2,5-bis(tert- no ny Id ith io)- 1 ,3,4-thiadiazole or 2-tert-nonyldithio-5-mercapto-1 ,3,4-thiadiazole. The number of carbon atoms on the hydrocarbyl substituents of the hydrocarbyl-substituted 2, 5-dimercapto-1 ,3,4-thiadiazole typically include 1 to 30, or 2 to 20, or 3 to 16. Extreme pressure additives include compounds containing boron and/or sulfur and/or phosphorus. The extreme pressure agent may be present in the lubricant compositions at 0 wt.-% to about 20 wt.-%, or at about 0.05 wt.-% to about 10.0 wt.-%, or at about 0.1 wt.-% to about 8 wt.-% of the lubricant composition.

Examples of anti-wear additives include organo borates, organo phosphites such as didodecyl phosphite, organic sulfur-containing compounds such as sulfurized sperm oil or sulfurized terpenes, zinc dialkyl dithiophosphates, zinc diaryl dithiophosphates, phosphosulfurized hydrocarbons and any combinations thereof.

Friction modifiers may include metal-containing compounds or materials as well as ashless compounds or materials, or mixtures thereof. Metal-containing friction modifiers include metal salts or metal-ligand complexes where the metals may include alkali, alkaline earth, or transition group metals. Such metalcontaining friction modifiers may also have low-ash characteristics. Transition metals may include Mo, Sb, Sn, Fe, Cu, Zn, and others. Ligands may include hydrocarbyl derivative of alcohols, polyols, glycerols, partial ester glycerols, thiols, carboxylates, carbamates, thiocarbamates, dithiocarbamates, phosphates, thiophosphates, dithiophosphates, amides, imides, amines, thiazoles, thiadiazoles, dithiazoles, diazoles, triazoles, and other polar molecular functional groups containing effective amounts of O, N, S, or P, individually or in combination. In particular, Mo-containing compounds can be particularly effective such as for example Mo-dithiocarbamates, Mo(DTC), Mo-dithiophosphates, Mo(DTP), Mo-amines, Mo (Am), Mo-alcoholates, Mo- alcohol-amides, and the like. Ashless friction modifiers may include lubricant materials that contain effective amounts of polar groups, for example, hydroxyl-containing hydrocarbyl base oils, glycerides, partial glycerides, glyceride derivatives, and the like. Polar groups in friction modifiers may include hydrocarbyl groups containing effective amounts of O, N, S, or P, individually or in combination. Other friction modifiers that may be particularly effective include, for example, salts (both ash-containing and ashless derivatives) of fatty acids, fatty alcohols, fatty amides, fatty esters, hydroxyl- containing carboxylates, and comparable synthetic long-chain hydrocarbyl acids, alcohols, amides, esters, hydroxy carboxylates, and the like. In some instances, fatty organic acids, fatty amines, and sulfurized fatty acids may be used as suitable friction modifiers. Examples of friction modifiers include fatty acid esters and amides, organo molybdenum compounds, molybdenum dialkylthiocarbamates and molybdenum dialkyl dithiophosphates.

Suitable metal deactivators include benzotriazoles and derivatives thereof, for example 4- or 5- alkylbenzotriazoles (e.g. triazole) and derivatives thereof, 4,5,6,7-tetrahydrobenzotriazole and 5,5'- methylenebisbenzotriazole; Mannich bases of benzotriazole or triazole, e.g. 1-[bis(2-ethyl-hexyl) aminomethyl) triazole and 1-[bis(2- ethylhexyl) aminomethyl)benzotriazole; and alkoxyalkylbenzotriazoles such as 1-(nonyloxymethyl)benzotriazole, 1-(1 -butoxyethyl) benzotriazole and 1 -(1 - cyclohexyloxybutyl) triazole, and combinations thereof. Additional non-limiting examples of the one or more metal deactivators include 1 ,2,4-triazoles and derivatives thereof, for example 3-alkyl(or aryl)-1 , 2,4-triazoles, and Mannich bases of 1 ,2,4-triazoles, such as 1-[bis(2-ethylhexyl) aminomethy1 -1 , 2,4- triazole; alkoxyalkyl -1 , 2,4-triazoles such as 1 -(1-bu-toxyethyl)-1 , 2,4-triazole; and acylated 3-amino-1 , 2,4-triazoles, imidazole derivatives, for example 4,4'-methylenebis(2-undecyl-5-methylimidazole) and bis[(N-methyl)imidazol-2-yl]-carbinol octyl ether, and combinations thereof. Further non-limiting examples of the one or more metal deactivators include sulfur-containing heterocyclic compounds, for example 2- mercapto-benzothiazole, 2,5-dimercapto-1 , 3,4-thia-diazole and derivatives thereof; and 3,5-bis[di(2- ethylhexyl) aminomethyl]-1 , 3,4-thiadiazolin-2-one, and combinations thereof. Even further non-limiting examples of the one or more metal deactivators include amino compounds, for example salicylidenepropylenediamine, salicylami-noguanidine and salts thereof, and combinations thereof. The one or more metal deactivators are not particularly limited in amount in the composition but are typically present in an amount of from about 0.01 to about 0.1 , from about 0.05 to about 0.01 , or from about 0.07 to about 0.1 , wt.-% based on the weight of the composition. Alternatively, the one or more metal deactivators may be present in amounts of less than about 0.1 , of less than about 0.7, or less than about 0.5, wt.-% based on the weight of the composition.

Pour point depressants (PPD) may include polymethacrylates, alkylated naphthalene derivatives, and combinations thereof. Commonly used additives such as alkylaromatic polymers and polymethacrylates are also useful for this purpose. Typically, the treat rates range from > 0.001 wt.-% to < 1.0 wt.-%, in relation to the weight of the base stock.

Demulsifiers may include trialkyl phosphates, and various polymers and copolymers of ethylene glycol, ethylene oxide, propylene oxide, or mixtures thereof.

Engine coolants may comprise alkylene glycols, water and additives. The alkylene glycols may be selected from mono ethylene glycol. Suitable additives include corrosion inhibitors, anti-freeze additives, defoamers, bittering agents, and colourants.

Hydraulic fluids may comprise mixtures of alkyl oligo alkylene glycol borates with oligo alkylene glycols, and additives. Suitable additives include corrosion inhibitors and defoamers.

In an embodiment, the use trigger is provided by the machine producer or a machine user or a machine maintenance facility. The use trigger may be generated by at least one node of the decentral network. Such node may be associated with the producer of the machine orthe user of the machine orthe machine maintenance facility. The use trigger may include at least one decentral machine identifier associated with the used machine. The use trigger may be generated on reading a physical identifier associated with the machine. The physical identifier may be connected to or physically attached to the machine, e.g. via an identification number, an electronic tag such as an RFID tag or a code such as a QR code. The physical identifier may be connected to the decentral machine identifier associated with the machine. The decentral machine identifier associated with the machine may be provided for generation of the use trigger.

In an embodiment, the use trigger is provided based on a pre-determined criterium. The pre-determined criterium may include a pre-determined use time period, a pre-determined location and/or a predetermined event. The pre-determined event may include performing maintenance operation(s) on the used machine. In an embodiment, the status data includes at least one physical and/or chemical property of the used machine fluid, at least one physical and/or chemical property of the used machine, maintenance data related to maintenance operations performed on the machine fluid, the location associated with the maintenance operation(s) or a combination thereof. The chemical property may be a property of the machine fluid that becomes evident during, or after, a chemical reaction. Hence, the chemical property may be any quality that can be established only by changing the chemical identity of the machine fluid. Examples of chemical properties include heat of combustion, toxicity, chemical stability in a given environment, flammability, ability to corrode, acidity and basicity, machine fluid material composition, recyclate content used for producing or manufacturing the machine fluid, bio-based content used for producing or manufacturing the machine fluid, renewable content used for producing or manufacturing the machine fluid, and/or pH value. The physical property may be any property that is measurable. Hence, the value of a physical property describes a state of the vehicle or a part thereof. Examples of physical properties include boiling point, color, density, ductility, distribution, refractive index, solubility, temperature, transmission, and/or viscosity.

In an embodiment, the status data is gathered from one or more data providing network node(s) associated with machine producers and/or machine users and/or machine maintenance facilities connected via a decentral network, wherein the data providing network node the status data is to be gathered from is selected based on the decentral machine identifier associated with the machine.

Decentral machine identifier(s) may connect the physical entity of the machine to status data. The status data may relate to historic information gathered at different time points during the use of the machine. The status data may be stored by or with respect to one or more node(s) associated with participants of the machine ecosystem. The status data may be distributed across multiple nodes of the decentral network associated with different participants of the machine ecosystem.

The decentral network may be configured to provide access to status data stored by one or more node(s) associated with at least one participant of the machine ecosystem. The access may be provided according to a decentral network protocol including authentication and/or authorization. The status data gathering may include providing at least one request to one or more node(s) associated with participants of the machine ecosystem based on decentral machine identifier(s).

In an embodiment, providing the one or more decentral machine fluid identifiers includes gathering at least part of said identifier(s) from existing machine fluid data associated with the machine fluid. The existing machine fluid data may correspond to a digital twin or a part thereof of the machine fluid. The digital twin may include decentral machine fluid identifier(s) and the machine fluid data. At least part of the machine fluid identifier(s) included in the digital twin may be gathered. The digital twin may be generated upon or after production of the machine fluid. The existing machine fluid data may include data related to the production of the machine fluid. The data related to the production of the machine fluid may be present within one or more data set(s). The data set(s) may be associated with data set identifier(s) to allow unique identification of the data set(s). The data related to the production of the machine fluid may include input data associated with one or more production input(s) used to produce the machine fluid. Input data may include decentral input material identifier(s) associated with the production input(s). The data related to the production of the machine fluid may include relationship representation(s) specifying relationship(s) between the production input(s) used to produce the machine fluid. The existing machine fluid data may be stored on a dedicated storage associated with the machine fluid producer, e.g. the data owner of the machine fluid data. Access to the dedicated storage may be controlled by the machine fluid producer (e.g. the data owner of the machine fluid data storage in such storage). Access to the dedicated storage may be controlled by the machine fluid producer (e.g. the data owner of the machine fluid data storage in such storage) via the decentral network node associated with such storage. Providing the one or more decentral machine fluid identifier(s) may further include generating one or more further decentral machine fluid identifier(s), such as data set identifier(s) associated with at least a part of the gathered status data. The further decentral machine fluid identifier(s) may be generated by a central node or a decentral node. The decentral node may be part of the decentral network.

In an embodiment, the method for monitoring the machine fluid further includes a step of determining at least one physical and/or chemical property of the machine fluid from at least part of the gathered status data. For instance, the degree of impurities may be determined from transmission data contained in the gathered status data.

In an embodiment, the method for monitoring the machine fluid further includes a step of updating existing machine fluid data associated with the machine fluid with at least part of the gathered status data and/or at least physical and/or chemical property determined from the status data. Updating may include associating at least part of the gathered status data with the decentral machine fluid identifier associated with the existing machine fluid data. Updating may include generating one or more data set(s) including at least a part of the gathered status data and associating the generated data set(s) with the decentral machine fluid identifier associated with the existing machine fluid data. Updating the existing machine fluid data allows to maintain the correspondence of the digital twin of the machine fluid to the physical entity of the used machine fluid such that digital twin may at any time represent the current state of the physical entity of the used machine fluid. By updating the existing machine fluid data, maintenance data considering the current state of the machine fluid may be generated, hence allowing to adapt the maintenance of the machine fluid to the current state without negatively impairing the performance of the machine while reducing the environmental impact by avoiding superfluous machine fluid maintenance operations, such as exchange or cleaning operations.

In an embodiment, the method for monitoring the machine fluid further includes a step of generating one or more data set(s), wherein each data set includes at least a part of the gathered status data and/or at least physical and/or chemical property determined from the gathered status data. Each data set may further include a data set identifier. Each data set may further include or be associated with a decentral machine fluid identifier associated with existing machine fluid data (e.g. with an existing digital twin of the machine fluid). The further step may be performed prior to providing the one or more decentral machine fluid identifier(s). Generation of different data set(s) allows to control access to the gathered status data more granularly, since access rules used to control access to the status data may be defined for each data set separately.

The data set(s) may relate to status data per maintenance operation or per decentral participant identifier. The participant identifier may be associated with the data consuming network node requesting access to the status data. The maintenance operation may be signified by a maintenance operation identifier. The decentral participant identifier may be provided by the data consuming network node requesting access to the status data. The maintenance operation identifier may be provided by the data consuming network node requesting access to the status data. The maintenance operation identifier may be provided by the data providing network node providing access to the status data. The maintenance operation identifier may be provided by authorization rules relating the decentral participant identifier associated with the data consuming network node requesting access to the status data to the maintenance operation identifier. The authorization rules may relate to one or more data set(s) relating to status data per maintenance operation and/or per decentral participant identifier.

In an embodiment, the access element relates to authorization rules that provide access to the status data depending on a re-use operation to be performed on the used machine fluid and/or a participant identifier associated with a participant of the decentral network, wherein the access element is provided for access to the status data including data depending on the re-use operation and/or the participant identifier by one or more data consuming network node(s) associated with one or more maintenance operator(s) executing one or more re-use operation(s). This way access to sensitive data relating to the maintenance operation of the machine fluid can be restricted to specific network nodes for which the data access is relevant, such as the machine maintenance facilities.

Re-use operation(s) may include cleaning operation(s) performed on the used machine fluid. Performing cleaning operation(s) may result in removing impurities from the machine fluid. The success of the cleaning operation may be determined by measuring the transmission of the cleaned machine fluid. Cleaning operation(s) may include processes well known in the state of the art for cleaning machine fluids.

In an embodiment of the method for generating maintenance data associated with the maintenance of a used machine fluid, the gathered machine fluid data includes operation data containing at least one predefined maintenance criterium. The pre-defined maintenance criteria may be indicative that maintenance is required if such criteria is fulfilled. The criterium may be a degree of impurities and/or SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) classes as defined by standard SAE J300. Each SAE class may be associated with a maximum and/or minimum viscosity. The viscosity may correspond to the kinematic viscosity, the high temperature-high shear viscosity and/or low temperature properties. The high temperature-high shear viscosity may be measured by the tapered bearing simulator. The low temperature properties measured by the cold-cranking simulator and mini-rotary viscometer.

In an embodiment of the method for generating maintenance data associated with the maintenance of a used machine fluid, gathering the machine fluid data includes determining decentral machine fluid identifier(s) associated with the machine fluid based on the provided decentral machine identifier(s) and gathering the machine fluid data from data providing network node(s) associated with said machine fluid data using at least part of the determined decentral machine fluid identifiers.

The decentral machine fluid identifier(s) may be determined by the decentral network node. The decentral machine fluid identifier(s) may be determined by a further decentral network node being in communication with the decentral network node gathering the status data and the machine fluid data. For instance, the further decentral network node may determine decentral machine fluid identifier(s) and may provide the determined decentral machine fluid identifier(s) to the decentral network node. The decentral network node may then gather status data and machine fluid data based on the provided decentral machine fluid identifier(s).

The decentral machine fluid identifier(s) may be determined using relationship representation(s) specifying relationship(s) between the machine and the machine fluid contained within the machine. The relationship representation(s) may be directly or indirectly associated with the decentral machine identifier. This allows to determine the respective relationship representation(s) using the decentral machine identifier. The relationship representation(s) may specify that the machine fluid may be used to produce the machine and/or that the machine is produced using the machine fluid. The relationship representation may be associated with a relationship between the machine and each material used to produce the machine, for example using the decentral machine identifier and decentral identifier(s) associated with all materials used to produce the machine (e.g. including the decentral machine fluid identifier). The relationship representation may be associated with the relationship between input material(s) and output material(s) of a single production step within the machine production chain. The machine production chain may include one or more production steps. The machine production chain may cover all production steps necessary to produce the machine. Relationship representations associated with a single production step may be linked to each other to mirror the whole machine production chain. Linking may performed by using decentral identifier(s) associated with input material(s) used in the production step and decentral identifier(s) associated with output material(s) resulting from said production step. Since the input material of one production step is corresponding to an output material of a previous production step the relationship representation of the previous production step will be linked to the relationship representation of a subsequent production step via respective decentral material identifier(s) . Linking of such relationship representations may be used to obtain a bill of material tree structure of the machine.

The relationship representations may be accessed based on data related to the relationship representation(s). The data related to the relationship representation(s) may be stored on a decentral registry accessible by the decentral network node determining the decentral material identifier(s). The decentral network node may access said decentral registry using the decentral vehicle identifier to determine data related to relationship representation(s) associated with said decentral vehicle identifier. Data related to a relationship representation may include a decentral relationship representation identifier and a digital representation pointing to the respective relationship representation. The digital representation pointing to the relationship representation may comprise at least one interface to a decentral data consuming network node being associated with said relationship representation. It may further include at least one interface to a decentral data consuming network node being associated with said relationship representation. It may include an endpoint for data exchange or sharing (resource endpoint) or an endpoint for service interaction (service Endpoint), that is uniquely identified via a communication protocol. The digital representation(s) pointing to the relationship representation may hence be uniquely associated with the decentral relationship representation identifier and the decentral vehicle identifier. The digital representation pointing to the relationship representation may be regarded as locator indicating the location or dedicated data storage(s) where the respective relationship representation is stored.

This decentral network node may be configured to determine data related to the respective relationship representation based on the decentral machine identifier. For instance, the decentral network node may be configured to retrieve data related to the relationship representation based on the decentral machine identifier from a decentral registry storing said data related to the relationship representation associated with the decentral machine identifier. The decentral network node may be configured to access the relationship representation from a decentral data providing network node associated with said relationship representation. The decentral data providing network node associated with said relationship representation may be associated with the producer of the machine. The relationship representation may be stored in a storage environment associated with said decentral data providing network node. The relationship representation may be part of machine data associated with the decentral machine identifier and stored in the storage environment associated with said decentral data providing network node. The decentral data providing network node may be associated with the data owner of the machine data. The decentral network node may be configured to determine decentral identifier(s) contained in the accessed relationship representation. In case relationship representations are linked, the decentral network node may be configured to determine materials, such as machine fluids, used to produce the machine by recursively determining data related to linked relationship representations, access respective relationship representations using the determined data and retrieve decentral identifiers associated with materials used to produce the machine based on the accessed relationship representations. In an embodiment of the method for generating maintenance data associated with the maintenance of a used machine fluid, correlating the gathered machine fluid data with the accessed status data may include a performing a data matching operation on the gathered machine fluid data and the accessed status data. If a matching is determined, this may indicate that maintenance of the machine fluid is due.

In an embodiment of the method for generating maintenance data associated with the maintenance of a used machine fluid, the generated maintenance data includes data related to machine fluid maintenance interval(s), data related to maintenance operation(s) to be performed on the used machine fluid, data related to at least one physical and/or chemical property of the used machine fluid or a combination thereof. Data related to machine fluid maintenance interval(s) may include data on operating hours or distance covered by the vehicle (e.g. driven and/or flown) when a maintenance operation is due and/or data on remaining operating hours or distance until a maintenance operation is due. Date related to maintenance operation(s) may include maintenance operation identifier(s) associated with maintenance operation(s) to be performed. Maintenance operation(s) may include cleaning operation(s).

In an embodiment of the method for performing one or more re-use operation(s) on a used machine fluid, the machine-readable instructions for controlling the re-use include at least one decentral identifier associated with at least one apparatus configured to perform the re-use operation(s) and at least one decentral machine fluid identifier associated with the used machine fluid. The instruction may relate to cleaning of the used machine fluid. The instruction may relate to recovery of at least one chemical material from the used machine fluid, e.g. to recycling of the used machine fluid.

The control data may be configured to provide the used machine fluid to a chemical and/or physical treatment plant associated with the machine fluid producer or a recycler. The control data may be associated with one or more re-use operation(s) to be performed on the used machine fluid. The control data may relate to a chemical and/or physical treatment, such as cleaning, of the used machine fluid to allow further use of the machine fluid within the machine. The control data may relate to a chemical and/or physical treatment of the used machine fluid to recover chemical material(s) as recyclate. The control data may be configured to initialize a process for performing at least one re-use operation on the used machine fluid. The control data may be provided to one or more node(s) of the decentral network, wherein the one or more node(s) may be associated with re-users for e.g. cleaning and/or recycle. The control data may include specification of the re-use operation, such as cleaning method and/or recycling method, recycler identifier and/or machine fluid producer identifier related to the machine fluid producer having produced the used machine fluid. Based on the generated control data the process for performing one or more re-use operation(s) on the used machine fluid to e.g. clean or recycle the used machine fluid, may be initialized and/or controlled.

In an embodiment of the method for sorting waste machine fluids, the machine fluid data includes status data. The status data may signify the status of the used machine fluid in its used state. The status data associated with the used machine fluid may relate to characteristics of the used machine fluid and optionally the used machine. The status data may relate to physical and/or chemical characteristics of the used machine fluid and optionally the used machine. The status data may include measurement data collected by one or more sensors. The measurement data may include transmission data and/or viscosity data. The transmission data may be analyzed to provide status data, such as the degree of impurities. The viscosity data may be analyzed to provide status data, such as the degree of wear. The status data may relate to the age of the used machine fluid, hours of operation of the machine and machine fluid, milage of the machine, previous maintenance operation(s) performed on the used machine fluid or combinations thereof.

In an embodiment of the method for sorting waste machine fluids, assigning of the waste machine fluid includes classification according to classification instructions relating machine fluid data to one or more machine fluid waste fraction(s). By classification the data-driven sorting can be conducted, simplifying the sorting process and ensuring the quality of machine fluid waste fractions. The classification instructions may be configured to classify the one or more waste machine fluids according to the machine fluid data. This may include classifying the one or more machine fluid(s) based on the machine fluid data per machine to the machine fluid waste fraction to be processed. Assigning the one or more waste machine fluid(s) to one or more machine fluid waste fraction(s) may include providing classification instructions configured to relate machine fluid data per waste machine fluid to the waste fraction to be processed.

In an embodiment of the method for sorting waste machine fluids, assigning one or more waste machine fluid(s) includes providing classification instructions that gather decentral machine fluid identifiers per machine fluid waste fraction based on the machine fluid data per waste machine fluid. The classification instructions may gather decentral machine fluid identifiers associated with the waste machine fluid(s) according to machine fluid waste fraction(s) to be processed by a defined machine fluid producer, a physical recycling process and/or a chemical recycling process and/or a recycling process involving physical and chemical treatment(s) and/or a thermal recycling process, the machine fluid waste fraction can be tailored to the adequate recycling process. The gathered decentral machine fluid identifiers per machine fluid and machine fluid waste fraction may be provided as sorting data to sort the one or more machine fluid(s). The location of the machine containing the waste machine fluids associated with the decentral machine fluid identifiers per machine and machine fluid waste fraction may be provided as sorting data to sort the one or more machine fluid(s). The sorting data may be provided to a sorting system configured to sort the one or more machine fluid(s) to the assigned machine fluid waste fraction(s). The sorting data may be provided to an interface configured to display the sorting data, such as machine fluid waste fraction(s) associated with waste machine fluid(s) contained with a machine to a user. Assigning the one or more machine fluid(s) to one or more machine fluid waste fraction(s) may include providing classification instructions, wherein the classification instructions specify the machine fluid waste fraction to be processed by a machine fluid recycler (such as a machine fluid producer) per machine fluid waste fraction, a recycling process per machine fluid waste fraction or combinations thereof. Assigning the one or more machine fluid(s) to one or more machine fluid waste fraction(s) may include providing classification instructions, wherein the classification instructions specify the machine fluid waste fraction to be processed by contaminants for recycling and/or degradation level and/or machine fluid type.

In another embodiment of the method for sorting waste machine fluids, the machine fluid waste fraction(s) may specify a fraction composition per machine fluid waste fraction, a fraction history per machine fluid waste fraction, a recycling process per machine fluid waste fraction or combinations thereof. The machine fluid waste fraction(s) may specify a machine fluid composition, one or more contaminants for recycling, a content per contaminant for recycling, a degradation level per machine fluid type, a machine fluid producer and/or a machine fluid type. By way of accessibility of data through the decentral network, the sorting depth can be enhanced and more reliable sorting can be ensured.

In an embodiment of the method for sorting waste machine fluids, the classification instructions are provided by one or more decentral network node(s) associated with one or more machine fluid producer(s) and/or one or more consumers of recyclate(s) produced by performing at least one recycling process on the waste machine fluid(s). This way the sorting in machine fluid waste fractions can be tailored to the prouder of the machine fluid also operating as recycler and/or the recyclate use. The classification instructions may additionally or alternatively, be provided by one or more decentral network node(s) associated with one or more recycler(s) operating recycling processes including physical treatment(s) and/or chemical treatments or thermal treatments. This way the sorting in machine fluid waste fractions can be tailored to the recycling process.

The classification instructions may be executed by one or more decentral network node(s) of the decentral network, such as the decentral network node associated with the sorter, the machine fluid producer and/or further recyclate consumers. The classification instructions may be provided by one or more decentral network node(s) of the decentral network such as the decentral network node associated with the machine fluid producer and/or further recycler(s). The classification instructions may be executed by the sorting system. The execution of the classification instructions by the sorter, the machine fluid producer and/or further recyclate consumers may be required for information protection e.g. if the classification instructions include secret process know-how. The execution of the classification instructions by the sorting system may reduce latency.

In an embodiment of the method for sorting waste machine fluids, the sorting data is provided to a sorting system configured to sort the waste machine fluid(s) to the assigned machine fluid waste fraction(s). The sorting system may include a display configured to display the sorting data.

In an embodiment of the method for sorting waste machine fluids, the machine fluid composition data associated with the waste machine fluid is gathered and aggregated to fraction data including fraction composition data. A fraction identifier may be provided and the fraction data may be assigned to the fraction identifier. The fraction identifier may include at least one decentral fraction identifier. The decentral fraction identifier and a representation linked to the fraction data may be provided for access by one or more network node(s) of a decentral network. The fraction data may be provided for access by the decentral network node associated with the recycler further processing the machine fluid waste fraction and/or the decentral network node associated with the machine fluid producer further processing the machine fluid waste fraction. This way the fraction properties can be tracked from the machine fluid waste to the use of recyclate in chemical production processes.

In another embodiment of the method for sorting waste machine fluids, the machine fluid waste fraction to be processed is associated with a recycling process identifier, wherein the recycling process identifier is assigned to the fraction identifier. The recycling process identifier may include at least one decentral recycling identifier. The fraction data may be provided for access by one or more network node(s) associated with the recycler further processing the machine fluid waste fraction and/or the machine fluid producer further processing the machine fluid waste fraction based on the decentral recycling identifier. This way the material flow of machine fluid waste fractions or recyclate can be controlled and/or monitored to reach suitable recyclers and machine fluid producers.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

In the following, the present disclosure is further described with reference to the enclosed figures. The same reference numbers in the drawings and this disclosure are intended to refer to the same or like elements, components, and/or parts.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example embodiment of a circular material loop including material participants connected through a decentral network with decentral network nodes associated with material participants.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic illustration of providing access via a decentral data providing network node associated with a data owner to machine fluid data associated with a machine fluid using a decentral data consuming network node associated with a machine fluid user.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example of a data structure of a digital twin of a machine fluid.

FIG. 3B illustrates an example of a data structure for dynamic use data contained within the digital twin data structure of FIG. 3A.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a chemical production producing one or more machine fluids in connection with an operating system including a digital twin management system.

FIG. 5 illustrates schematically an example apparatus for generating an access element associated with a used machine fluid. FIG. 6A shows a schematic illustration of a first example of providing a use trigger and gathering status data via the provided use trigger.

FIG. 6B shows a schematic illustration of providing a use trigger and gathering status data in response to receiving the use trigger.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a digital access element including DID owner data, DID document data and decentral identity infrastructure.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flow chart of an example method for monitoring a machine fluid during the use of a machine containing said machine fluid.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example system for obtaining machine fluid data and/or monitoring data based on a decentral machine identifier.

FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment of relationship representations specifying relationships between a machine and materials used to produce the machine.

FIG. 11 illustrates schematically an example apparatus for generating maintenance data associated with the maintenance of a used machine fluid.

FIG. 12 illustrates schematically a user interface for the maintenance of a used machine fluid.

FIG. 13 illustrates a flow chart of an example method for generating maintenance data associated with the maintenance of a used machine fluid.

FIG. 14 illustrates schematically an example apparatus for generating control data associated with a used machine fluid.

FIG. 15 illustrates a flow chart of an example method for generating control data associated with a used machine fluid.

FIG. 16 illustrates an example of a sensor-based sorting method for sorting waste machine fluids included in a vehicle.

FIG. 17 illustrates an example of waste machine fluids separation by the sensor-based sorting method of FIG. 16.

FIG. 18 illustrates a sorting system for sorting waste machine fluids comprising a decentral network interface in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 19 illustrates the flow chart for an example of a sorting method for sorting waste machine fluids that may be implemented in the sorting system of FIG. 18.

FIG. 20 illustrates a flow chart of an example of a sorting method that may be implemented by the sorting system with decentral network interface of FIG. 18

FIG. 21 illustrates example data structures used for the sorting method of FIG. 18 based on machine fluid data accessible by way of the decentral network interface.

FIG. 22 illustrates an example of the pre-defined classification configured to separate waste machine fluids by recycling process and machine fluid producer.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following embodiments are mere examples for implementing the method, the system or application device disclosed herein and shall not be considered limiting.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example embodiment of a circular material loop 132 including mate-rial participants 102 to recycler 116 connected through a 136 with decentral network nodes 118 to 130 associated with material participants 102 to 116.

The participant network shown in FIG. 1 may be a material chain network. The material chain network may include one or more linear material chain(s), such as production chain(s) and/or recycling chain(s). The linear material chain(s) may include a material production chain(s), in which the material is produced by a material producer 102 and used to produce an end product, for example by an original equipment manufacturer such as machine producer 108. The linear material chain(s) may include a material recycling chain, in which the produced end product is collected, sorted and recycled up to a recycler 116 and the recyclate is used to produce new material by the material producer 102. The material chain may include one or more production and/or recycling chain(s). The material chain may include one or more connected production and/or recycling chain(s). One or more linear material chain(s) may be connected to the material loop 132.

The material chain network may Ide a material loop network Including the use of recycled material(s) to produce new materials. One or more material loop(s) 132 may allow to use materials resulting from recycling of end-of-life products to produce new products, such as chemical products or materials, associated with one or more material chain(s). The material chain network, preferably the material loop 132, may include the production, use and/or recycling of physical materials or products containing such materials. The product may be a material, a chemical product, an intermediate chemical product, a discrete component containing material, a discrete component assembly, an end product, an end-of-life product, a product to be recycled, a recycled product or a recyclate. Material or chemical product may refer to a chemical compound, a chemical ingredient, a chemical molecule, a chemical composition, a chemical mixture, a chemical formulation, an intermediate chemical product, or a chemical base material that may be used to produce discrete products. Chemical material or product flows may include non-discrete material flows that may be further processed to produce discrete products or components. Chemical material or product flows may include liquids, pellets, beats, powders or the like. The discrete product may refer to a discrete component, a discrete component assembly, an end product, an end-of-life product, a product to be recycled, or a recycled discrete product.

The chemical material or product may be produced using raw materials and/or recyclate. The recyclate may refer to a mechanically or chemically recycled material. Recyclate or recycled material flows may include non-discrete material flows that may be further processed to produce new materials or chemical products. Recyclate or recycled material flows may include liquids, pellets, beats, powders or the like. The raw materials may refer to starting materials used to produce the material or chemical product, such as virgin raw material(s). Virgin raw material may be unused raw material that has not been subjected to any processing other than for its production.

End product may refer to a product that is the result of a material chain. End product may refer to a product that is used by the end product user. End-of-life (EOL) product may refer to a product that has been used by end product user. End-of-life product may refer to a product that does no longer fulfill the requirements for its use. End-of-life product may refer to a product that is no longer required. End-of-life products may be products disposed in waste, such as plastic waste. A recycled product may refer to any product or material that has been produced using end-of-life product(s). A recycled product may refer to a new product or material that has been produced using end-of-life product(s).

The material loop 132 illustrated in FIG. 1 may include multiple participants 102 to 116 forming the material loop 132. The material loop 132 may include all stages of the material from production of the material via use of the material to re-use of the material. The material may hence flow in a closed loop from production of constituents, the end product via use to re-use. Re-use may include re-purposing of the end-of-life product, re-furbishing of the end-of-life product and/or recycling of the end-of-life product to refeed recyclate into material production.

The participant(s) 102 to 116 of the material loop may be associated with the production of any material or product and/or recycling of any material or product. The participant(s) of the material loop 132 may include the chemical product producer 102, the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) 108, the end product user 110, maintenance shops for the end product 112, the EOL product collector and/or sorter 114, the recycler 116 or combinations thereof. The participant(s) may include various participant(s) of the material chain or loop not shown in FIG. 1 .

The participant(s) 102 to 116 of the material loop 132 may be connected through material flow(s) 138.

The material flow 138 may correspond to the flow of product or material from one participant 102 to 116 of the material loop to the downstream participant 102 to 116 of the material loop 132. The material flow 138 may refer to a continuous or a discontinuous flow of product or material. The flow of product or material may include any means of transportation suitable to transport the product from one participant 102 to 116 to another downstream participant 102 to 116. The means of transportation may include pipes, containers, barrels, packages or the like. The material flow 404 may be a one-sided flow, such as a directional material flow 138. The material flow 138 may flow from the up-stream participant 102 to 116 to the downstream participant 102 to 116 of the material loop 132, such as the material flow 138 from the recycler 116 to the chemical product producer 102. The material flow may include reverse material flow 138 from the downstream participant 102 to 116 to the upstream participant 102 to 116 of the material loop 132. For example, material may material flow 138 from the chemical product producer 102 to the recycler 116, e.g. when the recycled product or recyclate does not adhere to quality specifications and needs further treatment.

The material flow 138 may be associated with raw materials used to produce the material or chemical product, such as virgin raw material(s). Instead of or in addition to virgin raw material(s) the material flow 138 may include recycled material(s). The raw and recycled materials may be provided to the chemical product producer for producing material(s), chemical product(s) and/or intermediate chemical product(s) (not shown).

The material loop 132 illustrated in FIG. 1 may be based on the example of machine fluids and their circular loop. Machine fluids may include lubricants, engine coolants and hydraulic fluids. The material participants may include the input material supplier(s) 106, the machine fluid producer 102, the original equipment manufacturer 108 such as the machine producer, the machine user 110, such as the consumer, machine maintenance facilities 112, the waste collector and/or sorter 114, the recycler 116 such as the recycler or re-finer.

The machine fluid 140 may be produced by the machine fluid producer 102. The machine fluid may be provided to a machine producer 108. The machine producer 108 may use the received machine fluids during production of the machine. The machine may be provided to a machine user 110. The machine may be used by the user. Maintenance of the machine during its use may be performed at a machine maintenance shop 112. At the end-of-life the machine fluids may be disposed by the machine maintenance shop 112. The disposed machine fluid may be provided to the waste collector and/or sorter 114. The waste machine fluid may be collected by machine maintenance shop 112. The collected machine fluids may be sorted by EOL product collector/sorter 114. The collected machine fluids may be provided to a sorter for sorting fractions of machine fluids to be recycled. The sorted fractions may be provided to a recycler for recycling the machine fluid fraction. The recycled fraction may be provided to the machine fluid producer 102 for producing new machine fluid thus closing the material loop 132. The material flow 138 may close the loop between the material participants. In addition to the connection through material flow 138 the material participants 102 to 116 of the circular material loop 132 may be connected through data flow 134 via the decentral network 136. The decentral network 136 may include one or more decentral network nodes 118 to 130 associated with material participants 102 to 116 of the material loop 132. In a decentralized or decentral network 136, the decentral network nodes 118 to 130, in contrast to a centralized network, do not exclusively rely on a central network node. In other words, no single entity is the sole authority of the network. The decentral network 136 may include decentral and central network nodes. The decentral network 136 may include central network nodes that may control and/or monitor the decentral network nodes 118 to 130. For example, central network node(s) may provide authentication information, which allow at least two decentral network nodes 118 to 130to establish a peer-to-peer communication channel between respective decentral network nodes 118 to 130.

The network nodes 118 to 130 may be computing nodes. The computing node may be any device or system that includes at least one physical and tangible processor, and a physical and tangible memory capable of having thereon computer-executable instructions that are executed by a processor. Computing nodes are now increasingly taking a wide variety of forms. Computing nodes may, for example, be handheld devices, monitoring systems, control systems, laptop computers, desktop computers, mainframes and/or data centers. The memory may take any form and depends on the nature and form of the computing node. The decentral network nodes 118 to 130 may be connected via a wired and/or wireless connection such as one of Ethernet, USB, LAN, WLAN and the like. Wireless communication may use, for example, WLAN, Wi-Fi, cellular, and/or Blue-tooth. The decentral network nodes 118 to 130 may be configured to perform peer-to-peer data transactions, illustrated by the arrows 134 indicating data flow.

The decentral network no”es 1 ’8 to 130 may be configured as data consuming and/or providing network nodes. The decentral network nodes 118 to 130 may be configured to provide data to other network node(s) of the decentral network 136 and/or to consume data from other nodes of the decentral network 136. For instance, the decentral network node 120 associated with the machine fluid producer 102 may be configured to provide machine fluid data and/or monitoring data associated with properties of the machine fluid and/or the used machine fluid to downstream participants such as the machine maintenance shop 112, or the recycler 116. Further for instance, the decentral network node 1118 to 130 associated with the EOL product collector/sorter 114 or the recycler 116 may be configured to access data from the network node 118 to 130 associated with upstream participants such as the machine fluid producer 102.

The decentral network node(s) 118 to 130 may comprise computer-executable instructions configured to provide, consume and/or process data, such as data associated with the machine fluid or the machine produced or processed within the circular material loop 132. The network node(s) may run a data providing service configured to provide data to another decentral network node 118 to 130 of the decentral network 136. The decentral network node(s) 116 to 126 configured to provide data may be associated with a data owner or a data generating node associated with a material or product produced or processed within the circular loop 128. The decentral network node(s) 118 to 130 may be connected to one or more dedicated data storage(s) storing the data associated with material or product produced or processed in the circular loop 132 (see for example FIG. 2). The dedicated data storage(s) may be under control of the data owner or data generating node associated with the material or product produced or processed in the circular loop 132. The data owner may be the respective participant 102 to 116 of the circular loop 132, the data generating node 118 to 130 is associated with. The data generating node 118 to 130 may have access to the dedicated data storage(s). Access to data associated with material or product produced or processed within the circular loop 132 118 may hence be under control of the data owner the respective decentral network node 118 to 130 is associated with. This allows to retain full control over data associated with material or product produced or processed within the circular loop 132 by the data owner. At the same time this enables sharing of data associated with material or product produced or processed within the circular loop 132 under controlled conditions, for example by using appropriate protocols including authorization and authentication mechanisms or schemes to establish peer-to-peer communication.

The decentral network node 118 to 130 configured to consume data may comprise computer-executable instructions for accessing and/or processing data within the decentral net-work decentral network 136, such as data associated with material produced or processed within the circular loop 132 and provided by a decentral data providing network node 118 to 130. The decentral data consuming network node 118 to 130 may be controlled or owned by or associated with any upstream or downstream participant of the circular material loop 132. For instance, the decentral data consuming network node 126 may be associated with machine maintenance shop 112 to allow access to machine fluid data and monitoring data associated with the supplied machine fluid of the machine fluid producer through the decentral data providing network node 122 associated with the machine fluid producer 102.

The decentral networl 1 ”6 ma’ include further decentral network nodes. The further decentral network nodes may not be associated with further participants of the circular loop 132. The further nodes may be decentral infrastructure service nodes (not shown in FIG. 1). The decentral infrastructure service nodes may provide services for decentral participant nodes 118 to 130, such as verifying the identity of the decentral network participant nodes 118 to 130 prior to performing a data ex-change. The decentral network participant node(s) 118 to 130may be associated with or include certificate(s), such as X.509 certificate(s). The certificate(s) may be associated with an identity man-ager including e.g. a certificate issuing service and/or a dynamic provisioning service providing dynamic attribute tokens (e.g. OAuth Access Tokens). This way the decentral network node(s) 118 to 130 may be associated or connected to a unique identifier embedded in a X.509 certificate that identifies the respective decentral network node(s) 116 to 126. The information required to verify the certificate may be provided via an authentication registry associated with the certificate issuing service and/or a dynamic provisioning service. For instance, in the IDSA Reference Architecture Model, Version 3.0 of April 2019, a decentral data providing network node associated with the data owner, a Certification Authority (CA), a Dynamic Attribute Provisioning Service (DAPS) and a decentral data consuming network node associated with the data consumer are used to verify the identity prior to per-forming a data exchange (not shown).

The material or product produced by participant(s) 102 to 116 of the circular loop 132 may be associated with material or product data associated with properties of the material or product produced by participant(s) 102 to 116 of the circular loop 132 . The material or product data may be provided for access by the decentral data providing network node 118 to 130 associated with the material or product producer. Access to the material or product data may be controlled by the decentral data providing network node 118 to 130. The material or product data may be accessed by decentral data consuming network node(s) 118 to 130 associated with further participants 102 to 116 of the material loop 132 , such as any downstream participant 102 to 116.

The data flows 134 between decentral network nodes 118 to 130 may be directly or indirectly associated with the material flows 138 between the participants 102 to 116 of the material loop 132. For instance, the data flow 134 may be directly associated with the material flow 138 if data associated with a machine fluid provided from the machine fluid producer 102 to the machine producer 108 is accessed by a decentral data consuming network node 122 associated with said machine producer 108. For instance, the data flow 134 may be indirectly associated with the material flows 138, if data associated with a machine fluid produced by machine fluid producer 102 is accessed by a decentral data consuming network node 130 associated with recycler 116.

Data transactions between decentral network nodes 118 to 130 may be based on a decentral identifier associated with the material or product data to be accessed. The decentral identifier may be associated with the physical entity of the material or product. The decentral identifier may be uniquely associated with the physical entity of the material or product. The decentral identifier may uniquely identify the material or product within the decentral network 136. The decentral identifier may be associated with further decentral identifier(s), such as decentral identifier(s) of material(s) or product(s) used to produce the end product. This may allow to track the material(s) or product(s) used to produce a product, such as an end-product. The decentral identifier may be included in an access element associated with the material or product as is described in more detail in the context of FIG. 5 to FIG. 8.

In particular, the generation of access elements associated with monitoring data related to the use of machine fluid allows for wear dependent maintenance of the machine fluid, hence improving the environmental impact of the circular material loop 132 by avoiding maintenance using fixed intervals and resulting in waste machine fluids which could be used further without a negative impact on the operation of the machine. Such wear dependent maintenance may be performed by providing access to monitoring data related to the use of machine fluid as will be described in more detail by way of examples in the following FIG. 3A to FIG. 15.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic illustration of providing access via a decentral data providing network node associated with machine fluid data owner to machine fluid data using a decentral data consuming network node associated with a data user. Access to the digital twin or a part thereof (e.g. data set(s) contained in the digital twin, see FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B) may be requested by a decentral data consuming network node associated with a participant of the decentral network 136 (see FIG. 1). The participant may be a machine producer 108 producing a machine containing machine fluid(s) (see FIG. 1). The machine fluid data (or digital twin) may be associated with a machine fluid. The machine fluid may be selected from the group consisting of lubricants, engine coolants and hydraulic fluids. The digital twin may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The digital twin may include a decentral machine fluid identifier and machine fluid data. The machine fluid data may include status data included in a use trigger or gathered via a use trigger, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5 and FIG. 8. The machine fluid data may include at least one measured physical and/or chemical property of the machine fluid and/or at least one physical and/or chemical property determined from collected data associated with the production of the machine fluid.

The machine fluid 140 may be produced by a chemical production, such as chemical production 402 described in the context of FIG. 4. A digital access element may be generated upon or after production of the machine fluid, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5. The digital access element may be associated with the digital twin or the part thereof. The digital access element may contain a decentral access element identifier and access data. The decentral access element identifier may correspond to or be associated with the decentral machine fluid identifier of the digital twin. The access data may include digital representation(s) pointing to the machine fluid data or parts thereof. The access data may include a representation for accessing the machine fluid data or parts thereof. The access data may include data set identifier(s) associated with data set(s) contained in the digital twin (see for example FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B). An exemplary digital access element is illustrated in FIG. 7. The digital access element may further include or relate to authentication and/or authorization information linked to the decentral access element identifier. The authentication and/or authorization information may be provided for authentication and/or authorization of the data providing network node 120 and/or the data consuming network node 122. The digital access element may be provided to a decentral registry 208, for example by data providing network node 120 associated with an apparatus generating access element(s) (see for example FIG. 5). Decentral registry 208 may store decentral access element identifier(s) and associated access data. Decentral registry 208 may be accessible by data consuming network nodes via decentral data providing network node 120 associated with such registry. Hence, the entity associated with data providing network node 120 may control access to registry 208 via data providing network node 120. The machine fluid 140 as produced by the chemical production 402 may be provided in association with the digital access element to a machine fluid consumer, such as machine producer 108. The machine fluid consumer may use the machine fluid to produce a machine containing the machine fluid. The machine fluid 140 may be connected to a code, such as a bar code or QR-code, having encoded the decentral access element identifier. The machine fluid consumer may read the code through a code reader 202. The code reader 202 may be a smartphone running a code reading application, such as a QR code reader app. The data obtained by the code reading application may be used to determine the decentral access element identifier. The data obtained by the code reading application may be used to determine the decentral machine fluid identifier. The data obtained by the code reading application may be used to determine the machine fluid identifier. The data obtained by the code reading application may be used to determine the access data. The decentral access element identifier, decentral machine fluid identifier, machine fluid identifier and access data may be determined by code reader 202. For instance, the decentral access element identifier determined by the code reader 202 may be a DID and the code reader 202 may be configured to retrieve the associated DID document containing the decentral machine fluid identifier and the access data, for example using a DID resolver (see also FIG. 7). In another instance, the machine fluid identifier may be determined by code reader 202 and may be used to retrieve the decentral access element identifier and associated access data, for example from a database, such as decentral registry 208. Hence, code reader 202 may be configured to retrieve the digital access element containing the decentral access element identifier and access data from decentral registry 208. Code reader 202 may be configured to provide the decentral access element identifier and/or the decentral machine fluid identifier to a database 206 associated with the machine producer 108. Code reader 202 may be configured to provide the determined decentral access element identifier, decentral machine fluid identifier and access data to decentral data consuming network node 122.

Code reader 202 may be configured to display determined/retrieved data on a user interface as illustrated by reference sign 204. The user interface may display the determined decentral access element identifier (element ID), the determined decentral machine fluid identifier (twin ID) and the determined access data (DT location). In this embodiment, the decentral access element identifier and the decentral machine fluid identifier differ from each other. In another embodiment, the decentral access element identifier is equal to the decentral machine fluid identifier. The user interface may further display the determined machine fluid identifier (fluid ID). The user interface may also allow to initiate retrieval of the machine fluid data or a part thereof based on the decentral access element identifier and the access data as described in the following. This process may be initiated by the button denoted “Access DT”. Upon pressing said button, code reader 202 may send a request to access the machine fluid data or the part thereof to decentral data consuming network node 122.

The decentral data consuming network node 122 associated with the machine producer 108 may generate a request to access the machine fluid data or a part thereof. Decentral data consuming network node 122 may generate the request based on the data received from code reader 202. For instance, decentral data consuming network node 122 may generate the request based on the decentral machine fluid identifier received from code reader 202. Data consuming network node 122 may generate the request based on the decentral access element identifier and/or decentral machine fluid identifier provided to database 206. For example, decentral data consuming network node 12 may be configured to retrieve the decentral machine fluid identifier and access data from decentral registry 208 based on the decentral access element identifier stored in database 206. The request generated by decentral data consuming network node 122 may include the decentral machine fluid identifier and a decentral participant identifier associated with decentral data consuming network node 122. The request may further include one or more data set identifier(s) associated with data set(s) of the digital twin (see also FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B). Decentral data consuming network node 122 may be configured to determine the data providing network node 120 associated with the machine fluid data based on the access data provided by code reader 202 or retrieved from decentral registry 208.

Decentral data consuming network node 122 may sent the request to access the machine fluid data or a part thereof to the determined data providing network node 120 as signified by arrow 210. The data providing network node 120 may be associated with the machine fluid producer 102. The data providing network node 120 may be associated with the chemical production producing the machine fluid. The data providing network node 120 may be associated with the data owner of the machine fluid data, such as the machine fluid producer 102. In addition to the request, authentication and/or authorization information may be provided by decentral data consuming network node 122, for example as described in the context of FIG. 1.

The request may be authenticated (see also FIG. 1). The request may be authorized by the data providing network node 120, for example by retrieving access rules from a database of the data providing network node 120 based on the decentral machine fluid identifier contained in the received request. The access rules may define data consuming network nodes allowed to access the machine fluid data or a part thereof. At least part of the retrieved access rules may be applied to the received request. This allows to filter decentral data consuming network nodes requesting access based on the decentral participant identifier(s) associated with said network nodes. If the request is not authorized, the peer-to-peer communication channel will be terminated by digital data providing network node 120 and no machine fluid data will be provided.

If the request is authorized, data providing network node 120 may initiate contract negotiations with decentral data consuming network node 122. Data providing network node 120 may provide an electronic contract to decentral data consuming network node 122. The electronic contract may include access rule(s) associated with the decentral machine fluid identifier. This allows the data consumer to determine access and usage conditions associated with the desired data. Data providing network node 120 and decentral data consuming network node 122 may be configured to negotiate an electronic contract and to sign the negotiated electronic contract. Use of the electronic contract ensures that the decentral data consuming network node 122 and further systems handling the machine fluid data or a part thereof are complying to access rule(s) associated with the machine fluid data. Upon signature of the electronic contract, data providing network node 120 may retrieve or request machine fluid data stored in digital twin storage 214 based on the decentral machine fluid identifier and optionally data set identifier(s) contained in the received request as designated by arrows 212 and 216. Data providing network node 120 may apply determined access rule(s) to the retrieved or received machine fluid data. Afterwards data providing network node 120 may provide the machine fluid data or parts thereof according to the applied access rule(s) to the decentral data consuming network node 122 as signified by arrow 218.

The machine fluid data provided by data providing network node 120 may be stored in database 206 associated with the decentral data consuming network node 122 according to the access rule(s) as signified by arrow 220.

Through the decentral machine fluid identifier, the associated digital twin can be uniquely associated with the machine fluid. Through the decentral network, the machine fluid data or a part thereof may be transferred between the machine fluid producer 102 and the machine producer 108 in a standardized and secure way, allowing the machine fluid producer 102 to control access to the machine fluid data or the part thereof by multiple decentral data consuming network nodes existing within the decentral network. This way, the machine fluid or the part thereof can be shared with unique association to the machine fluid and without central intermediary directly between the participants of the machine ecosystem. This allows for transparency of digital twins within the machine ecosystem.

The generation of a digital twin of a physical entity of a produced machine fluid as well as the generation of a digital access element associated with said digital twin allows to share machine fluid data or a part thereof under simplified and customizable conditions without compromising data security and data sovereignty.

FIG. 3A illustrates an example of a data structure of a digital twin of a machine fluid. The used machine fluid may be selected from the group consisting of lubricants, engine coolants and hydraulic fluids. The exemplary data structure may comprise a tree structure comprising a root node and one or more leaf nodes (e.g. nodes not having child nodes). The root node may resemble the digital twin of the machine fluid. The root node may include the decentral machine fluid identifier. The decentral identifier may include one or more UUID(s) and/or DID(s) as previously described. The root node may comprise one or more child nodes.

The child nodes may represent different data sets, such as data sets 304 to 334. The data sets may likewise comprise a tree structure. The data set(s) may include static properties, such as safety data, technical data, production data, usage instruction data, specification data, maximal usage data such as maximal milage before required cleanup and/or maximal duration before cleanup, identification data such as color. The data set(s) may include dynamic properties, such as illustrated in FIG. 3B. Each data set may include or be associated with a data set identifier. The data set identifier may include one or more UUID(s) and/or DID(s). The data set identifier may uniquely identify the data set within the digital twin data structure. Each data set may be associated with the decentral machine fluid identifier. Hence, the combination of the decentral machine fluid identifier and the respective data set identifier allows to uniquely identify a data set of a digital twin.

The digital twin data structure may be generated by collecting data associated with the production of the machine fluid, such as production data, certificate of analysis data, material safety data, technical data, usage instruction data, specification data, maximal usage data, identification data, composition data, data associated with production input(s) used to produce the machine fluid, or a combination thereof. The decentral machine fluid identifier may be provided from a central or decentral node. At least one data model defining the structure of one or more data set(s), such as data sets 304 to 334, may be provided. The data model(s) may contain a semantic description of the respective data set. This ensures generation of data set(s) having a harmonized data structure and allows efficient sharing and processing of the data. The data model(s) may be applied to the collected data to generate the one or more data set(s). A data set identifier may be provided for each data set. The digital twin data structure may be generated by associating the decentral machine fluid identifier with the one or more data sets.

The digital twin data structure may be generated upon receiving a request to generate such data structure. The request may be received from a requestor. For instance, the packaging line may comprise a labelling device detecting the packaging of the produced machine fluid(s). Based on such recognition, a requestor may generate a request to generate the digital twin data structure and the respective decentral machine fluid identifier included in the generated digital twin data structure may be assigned, for example by an ID assignor, to the respective physical identifier. Assigning may include encoding the respective decentral machine fluid identifier in a physical identifier and providing the physical identifier, such as a code, to the labelling device configured to attach the physical identifier to the respective machine fluid, such as the packaging of the respective machine fluid. The ID assignor may be part of the labelling device or may be a separate device.

The digital twin data structure may be generated by the data owner of the collected production data associated with the production of the machine fluid. The digital twin data structure may be generated by the machine fluid producer 102. The digital twin data structure may be generated on behalf of the data owner, such as the machine fluid producer 102.

The digital twin data structure may be stored in a dedicated storage associated with or of the data owner, such as the machine fluid producer. The dedicated storage may be accessible for the data owner. The dedicated storage may be associated with the data providing network node providing access to the digital twin data structure, for example via an access element as described in the context of FIG. 2. FIG. 3B illustrates an example of a data structure for dynamic use data contained within the digital twin data structure of FIG. 3A. The dynamic use data structure may contain a tree structure including a root node and one or more leaf nodes. The root node may include the dynamic use data set identifier. The dynamic use data may contain monitoring data collected during the use of the machine, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5 to FIG. 15. The monitoring data may be collected upon receiving a use trigger, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5 and FIG. 8. The monitoring data may include data associated with the operation of the machine. The monitoring data may include data associated with the used machine fluid. The monitoring data may include at least one measured physical property of the machine fluid. The monitoring data may include at least one physical property determined from collected data associated with the used machine fluid. For instance, collected transmission data may be used to determine the degree of impurities of the machine fluid.

The dynamic use data may be collected by one or more sensors. The one or more sensors may be present within the machine. The one or more sensors may not be present within the machine. The one or more sensors may be configured to determine at least one property of the used machine fluid. The at least one property may be a transmission property and/or a viscosity. The dynamic use data may be determined from data collected by the one or more sensors as previously described. The dynamic use data may correspond to or include the status data.

The status data may include at least one property related to the location of the maintenance operation, such as an identifier associated with the maintenance shop. This may allow, for example, to track whether the maintenance of the machine fluid was performed by authorized shops.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a chemical production 402 producing one or more machine fluid(s) 408 from one or more input material(s) 404 in connection with an operating system 406 including a digital twin management system. The machine fluid may be selected from the group consisting of lubricants, engine coolants and hydraulic fluids. The chemical production 402 may be associated with a decentral network participant, such as the machine fluid producer 102 described in the context of FIG. 1. The operating system 406 may be used to operate the chemical production 402, for example by managing different production chains present within the chemical production. For producing one or more machine fluid(s) 408, different chemical materials 404 (also called input material 404 hereinafter) may be provided as physical inputs from material providers or suppliers. The physical inputs to the chemical production 402 may include chemical materials, such raw materials, intermediate materials or a combination thereof. Raw materials may be virgin or recycled raw materials (see FIG. 1). The input material 404 may be fed into the chemical production 402 at any entry point. The input material 404 may be fed into the chemical production 402 at the start of the chemical production 402. The input materials may be considered input for the chemical production 402. The chemical production 402 may be a chemical production network including multiple interlinked processing steps. The chemical production network may be an integrated chemical production network with interrelated production chains. The chemical production network may include multiple different production chains that have at least one intermediate product in common. The chemical production network may include multiple stages of the chemical value chain. The chemical production network may include multiple production chains that produce from one or more inbound material(s) as input chemical products as output. The chemical production network may include multiple tiers of a chemical value chain. The chemical production network may include a physically interconnected arrangement of production sites. The production sites may be at the same location or at different locations. In the latter case, the production sites may be interconnected by means of dedicated transportation systems such as pipelines, supply chain vehicles, like trucks, supply chain ships or other cargo transportation means.

The chemical production 402 may include multiple production steps. The production steps included in the chemical production 402 may be defined by the system boundary of the chemical production 402. The system boundary may be defined by location or control over production processes. The system boundary may be defined by the site of the chemical production 402. The system boundary may be defined by production processes controlled by one entity or multiple entities jointly. The system boundary may be defined by value chain with staggered production processes to an end product, which may be controlled by multiple entities separately.

The chemical production 402 may convert inbound material 404 to one or more machine fluid(s) 408 that exit the chemical production 402. The conversion may be performed via intermediate chemical products. The conversion may be a chemical reaction or any other processing step, such as physical processing. The chemical reaction may result in a mixture of different chemical product(s) since the yield of the chemical reaction may be less than 100%. Hence, a chemical reaction of one or more starting materials, such as inbound material(s) 202, may result in a mixture of different chemical product(s). Chemical reactions may therefore be characterized by a one-to-many or many-to-many relationship between starting materials and resulting reaction productions. This is in contrast to discrete manufacturing, where a many-to-one relationship between parts/components and assemblies is existing, e.g. the result of a discrete manufacturing step is a concrete and predictable assembly. Since the yield of a chemical reaction may not always equal 100%, the amount of desired machine fluid 408 may be less than the theoretical amount of said machine fluid calculated from the amount of starting materials. Such mixtures typically require separation of the different chemical products contained in said mixture. This allows to avoid a negative influence of impurities and unreacted inbound material(s) 404 on the further processing of the machine fluid 408. Separation may include distillation, washing, extraction, crystallization and recrystallization. The resulting mixture may contain unreacted starting material, such as unreacted inbound material 404. Unreacted starting material may be reintroduced into the chemical reaction to reduce the amount of required starting material. The resulting mixture may contain desired machine fluid 408 to be supplied to upstream participants of the product ecosystem, such as machine producer 108 (see FIG. 1). The resulting mixture may contain intermediate chemical product(s) used as input material in further chemical reactions performed within the chemical production 402. This allows to reduce the amount of waste associated with the disposal of said intermediate chemical products and/or the amount of energy associated with transportation of these intermediate products to another chemical production. The resulting mixture may contain waste chemical product(s), e.g. chemical product(s) which cannot be used any further and which need to be disposed, for example by burning. Waste chemical products may be produced from undesired chemical side reactions.

The chemical production 402 may comprise a plurality of sensors (not shown). The sensors may collect at least one chemical and/or physical property of the machine fluids 408 produced by the chemical production 402. The sensors may measure at least one chemical and/or physical property of the inbound material(s) 404 provided to the chemical production 402. The sensors may collect data related to the amount of inbound material(s) 404 and/or produced machine fluids 408. Examples of such sensors may include scales or flow meters. The sensors may include sensors configured to measure at least one chemical and/or physical property of the inbound material(s) 404. Measurement of chemical and/or physical properties of the inbound material(s) 404 allows to control production processes based on the measured data. The sensors may include sensors configured to determine chemical and/or physical properties of the produced machine fluid 408. Data collected by the sensors may be stored in one or more databases and may be used to generate the digital twin data structure of the machine fluid as described in the context of FIG. 3A. The stored data may be interrelated with input material identifier(s) and/or machine fluid identifier(s), respectively.

The operating system 406 of the chemical production may monitor and/or control the chemical production 402 based on operating parameters associated with the different processes performed by the chemical production 402. One process step monitored and/or controlled may be the feed of inbound materials 404 or the release of produced machine fluid 408. Another process step monitored and/or controlled may be the separation of chemical product(s) contained in mixtures resulting from chemical reactions performed within the chemical production 402. Another process step monitored and/or controlled may be the determination of chemical and/or physical properties of produced machine fluids 408 from data associated with the production of the machine fluid, such as data measured by sensors before, during and/or after production of the machine fluids 408. Another process step monitored and/or controlled may the generation of digital twins (e.g. digital twin data structures, see for example FIG. 3A). The digital twins may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 3A. Yet another process step monitored and/or controlled may be the generation of access elements associated with gathered status data, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5 and FIG. 8. Yet another process step monitored and/or controlled may be the control of access to the gathered status data based on generated digital access elements, for example as described in the context of FIG. 2. FIG. 5 illustrates schematically an example apparatus for generating an access element associated with a used machine fluid. The machine fluid may be present within a used machine. The used machine fluid may be selected from the group consisting of used lubricants, used engine coolants and used hydraulic fluids. The apparatus may be configured to perform the method illustrated in FIG. 8. The apparatus may correspond to operating system 406 of chemical production 402 described in the context of FIG. 4. The apparatus may be in communication with input material operating system 406 of chemical production 402 described in the context of FIG. 4.

A use trigger may be generated by use trigger provider 502. The use trigger may be generated by a node associated with participant(s) of the machine ecosystem, such as the machine ecosystem illustrated in FIG. 1. The participant may be a workshop repairing machines, cleaning used machine fluids and/or exchanging used machine fluids, such as machine maintenance shop 112 of FIG. 1. For generation of the use trigger, the identification of the machine may be read through code reader202 or may be manually entered into an application such as a mobile app. Based on providing the machine identification the decentral machine identifier associated with the used machine may be retrieved via the decentral network using ID provider 506. For example, the machine identification may be provided to a decentral data base or a decentral registry storing the decentral machine identifiers in connection with the machine identification. The decentral database may be a data base including decentral machine identifiers for machine in the machine ecosystem. The decentral database may include a distributed ledger and may allow for verification of the machine identifier. Further for example, the decentral machine identifier may be retrieved from a registry storing the decentral machine identifiers in connection with the machine identification and associated with the participant triggering the use trigger. Further for example, the decentral machine identifier may be fetched from a registry associated with any participant in the machine ecosystem, such as the machine producer or the machine user. The participant triggering the use event may connect via authentication and/or authorization protocols of the decentral network to nodes associated with other participants of the machine ecosystem as for example described in the context of FIG. 1.

According to a first exemplary embodiment and with reference to FIG. 6A, the use trigger may include the decentral machine identifier associated with the used machine and status data associated with the used machine fluid. The status data may signify the status of the used machine fluid. The status data associated with the used machine fluid may relate to characteristics of the used machine fluid and optionally the used machine. The status data may relate to physical and/or chemical characteristics of the used machine fluid and optionally the used machine. The status data may include at least one physical and/or chemical property of the used machine fluid, at least one physical and/or chemical property of the used machine, maintenance data related to maintenance operations performed on the machine fluid, the location associated with the maintenance operation(s) or a combination thereof. The status data may include measurement data collected by one or more sensors. The measurement data may include transmission data and/or viscosity data. The transmission data may be analyzed to provide status data, such as the degree of impurities. The viscosity data may be analyzed to provide status data, such as the degree of wear. The status data may relate to the age of the used machine fluid, hours of operation of the machine and machine fluid, milage of the machine, previous maintenance operation(s) performed on the used machine fluid or combinations thereof.

With continued reference to FIG. 6A, the use trigger including the decentral identifier associated with the used machine and further including the status data may be provided to any node associated with a participant of the machine ecosystem monitoring the maintenance of the used machine fluid. For example, the use trigger may be provided to the node associated with the machine fluid producer 102. The use trigger may be sent to the node associated with the respective participant as illustrated in FIG. 6A. Hence, the apparatus of this embodiment may not comprise status data collector 508 since the status data is already provided by use trigger provider 502. The node may comprise access element generator 512. The node may be in communication with access element generator 512.

Machine fluid producer 102 may generate a data set including an endpoint address associated with data consuming network node 120 and data being indicative that this is the endpoint to receive status data associated with used machine fluid. The data set (hereinafter denoted as asset) may be provided to decentral registry node 612. Decentral registry node 612 may be configured to store assets and to provide access to the stored assets upon request from decentral data consuming network node(s) and/or decentral data providing network node(s) associated with participants of a decentral network, such as decentral network 136 described in the context of FIG. 1. Decentral data consuming network node 120 may be configured to provide status data received from a decentral data providing network node 122 associated with machine producer 108 to database 606.

Machine maintenance shop 112 may generate status data for the used machine fluid as described above. The generated status data may be stored in status data storage 610 associated with a decentral data providing network node 122 of machine maintenance shop 112. Upon generating the use trigger decentral data providing network node 122 may be configured to retrieve the asset registered by machine fluid producer 102 from decentral registry node 612. The asset may be retrieved by identifying the asset catalog (e.g. a data set indicating a list of available assets accessible from the decentral data providing node associated with the decentral registry node 612) associated with the machine fluid producer 102 based on the decentral participant identifier of machine fluid producer 102. The asset may be identified in the catalog by searching for an asset containing a property being indicative of endpoint data to receive status data associated with used machine fluid.

Upon identifying the respective endpoint, decentral data providing network node 122 may establish a connection to decentral data consuming network node 120 using the data contained in the retrieved asset. Decentral data providing network node 122 and decentral data consuming network node 120 may perform authentication steps, for example as described in the context of FIG. 2. Upon successful authentication, electronic contract negotiations may be performed as described in the context of FIG. 11. Upon successful electronic contract negotiations, decentral data providing network node 122 may provide the generated use trigger to decentral data consuming network node 120 and decentral data consuming network node 120 may store the status data contained in the received use trigger in database 606.

According to a second exemplary embodiment and with reference to FIG. 6B, the use trigger provided by use trigger provider 502 may include the decentral machine identifier associated with the used machine. With continued reference to FIG. 6B, the use trigger including the decentral identifier associated with the used machine may be provided to any node associated with a participant of the machine ecosystem monitoring the maintenance of the used machine fluid. For example, the use trigger may be provided to the node associated with the machine fluid producer 102. The use trigger may be sent to the node associated with the respective participant as illustrated in FIG. 6B. The node may comprise access element generator 512. The node may be in communication with access element generator 512.

In response to receiving the use trigger, node 120 may be configured to gather (e.g. collect) status data from node 122 associated with machine maintenance shop 112 via the decentral machine identifier contained in the received use trigger. The status data may be collected from node 122 as described in the context of FIG. 2. The status data may be collected by status data collector 508.

Referring back to FIG. 5, an access element associated with the status data may be generated by access element generator 512 based on the providing of the use trigger. One or more data set(s) may be generated using the status data by data set generator 510. Each data set may include at least a part of the gathered status data and/or at least physical and/or chemical property determined from the gathered status data. Each data set may further include a data set identifier. Generation of different data set(s) allows to control access to the status data more granularly, since access rules used to control access to the status data may be defined for each data set separately. The data set(s) may be generated by applying one or more data model(s) to the status data. This allows to generate standardized data ensuring efficient data transfer and processing, for example to determine maintenance data and control data.

The one or more data set(s) may be used by digital twin updater 514 to update an existing digital twin of the used machine fluid. The existing digital twin may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 3A. Updating may include associating at least part of the gathered status data with the decentral machine fluid identifier associated with the existing machine fluid data. Updating the existing machine fluid data allows to maintain the correspondence of the digital twin of the machine fluid to the physical entity of the machine fluid such that digital twin may at any time represent the current state of the physical entity of the used machine fluid. By updating the existing machine fluid data, maintenance data considering the current state of the machine fluid may be generated, hence allowing to adapt the maintenance of the machine fluid to the current state without negatively impairing the performance of the machine while reducing the environmental impact by avoiding superfluous machine fluid maintenance operations, such as exchange or cleaning operations).

At least one decentral machine fluid identifier may be provided by decentral machine fluid ID provider 516. Decentral machine fluid ID provider 516 may gather decentral machine fluid identifier(s) included in an existing digital twin of the machine fluid. Decentral machine fluid ID provider 516 may generate one or more further decentral machine fluid identifier(s), such as data set identifier(s), associated with at least a part of the status data.

At least one digital representation associated with the status data may be generated by digital representation generator 518. The digital representation may include a representation of status data or parts thereof (e.g. data set(s) including status data). The digital representation may include a locator or pointer to a dedicated storage or storage address associated with the machine fluid producer 102 The pointer or locator may point directly to the dedicated storage address. The dedicated storage may store the status data or data set(s) including the status data. Access to the dedicated storage may be controlled by the data owner of the status data, such as the machine fluid producer 102. The pointer or locator may point to a data providing network node associated with the dedicated storage. This may increase data security since the dedicated storage address is not published to further participants of the decentral network hence avoiding the risk of direct access of the dedicated storage without access control via the decentral data providing network node. The digital representation may include one or more digital link(s) pointing to the status data. The digital representation(s) may include a locator or pointer, such as am url or uri, to a dedicated storage address associated with the machine fluid producer and storing the status data. The digital representation may include a representation for accessing the status data or data set(s) including the status data.

An access element associated with the status data may be generated by access element generator 504. An exemplary access element generated by access element generator 504 is illustrated in FIG. 7. The access element may include the decentral machine fluid identifier(s) and the digital representation(s). An access element may be generated per data set generated by data set generator 510. The access element may relate to authorization rules that provide access to status data depending on a maintenance operation to be performed on the used machine fluid and/or a participant identifier associated with a participant of the decentral network. The access element may be provided for access to the status data including data depending on the maintenance operation and/or the participant identifier by one or more data consuming network node(s) associated with one or more maintenance operator(s) executing one or more maintenance process(es). This way access to sensitive data relating to the maintenance operation of the used machine fluid can be restricted to specific network nodes for which the data access is relevant, such as the machine maintenance shop 112. Access element generator 504 may provide the generated access element(s) to data providing network node 120 for access to the status data by data consuming network nodes. The access to the status data based on the access element(s) may be controlled by data providing network node 120. The data providing network node 120 may be associated with the storage storing the status data.

The decentral identifier may include a Decentralized Identifier (DID). The decentral identifier-based digital access element may in this case be a DID document 704 associated with the DID. Besides the DID document 704 serving as digital access element, FIG. 7 shows a DID owner data element 702 including decentral identifier-based owner data. Generally, the decentral identifier-based owner data may include the decentral identifier associated with a subject such as chemical product data set(s) and may include one or more authentication mechanism(s). The decentral identifier-based owner data 702 may include owner data that is electronically owned and controlled by the DID owner. In this context electronically owned may refer to data that is stored in an owner repository or wallet. Such data may be securely stored and/or managed on an organizational server or client device. The decentral identifierbased owner data 702 may include a DID, a private key and a public key. The DID owner may own and control the DID that represents an identity associated with the DID subject, a private key and public key pair that are associated with the DID. DID may be understood as an identifier and authentication information associated with or uniquely linked to the identifier.

The DID subject may be a raw material, a basic substance, a chemical product, or an end product. The DID subject may be a machine, a system, or a device used for producing the raw material, the basic substance, the chemical product, the intermediate product, or the end product, or a collection of such machine(s), device(s) and/or system(s). The DID owner may be a supply chain participant or a manufacturer such as a chemical manufacturer producing chemicals. The DID owner may be an upstream participant of machine fluid producer 102 such as a supplier that supplies raw chemical products or precursors to produce the machine fluid. The DID owner may be a downstream participant of the machine fluid producer 102 such as a customer that consumes chemical products to produce an intermediate product, the component, the component assembly or the end product. The DID owner may be any participant of the product ecosystem including raw chemical product supplier, intermediate chemical products manufacturer, intermediate part manufacturer, component manufacturer, component assembly manufacturer, end product manufacturer, end product user, maintenance operation performer, EOL collector or recycler.

The DID may be any identifier that is associated with the DID subject and/or the DID owner. Preferably, the identifier is unique to the DID subject and/or DID owner. The identifier may be unique at least within the scope in which the DID is anticipated to be in use. The identifier may be a locally or globally unique identifier for the raw material, the precursor, the basic substance, the chemical product, the intermediate product, the component, the component assembly, the end product, the recycled material or a collection thereof; the machine, the system, or the device used for producing the raw material, the basic substance, the machine fluid, the intermediate product, the component, the component assembly, the end product, the recycled material, or the collection of such machine(s), device(s) and/or system(s); the chemical manufacturer producing chemicals, the upstream participant of the chemical manufacturer, the downstream participant of the chemical manufacturer or a collection thereof; any participant of the product ecosystem including raw chemical product supplier, intermediate chemical products manufacturer, intermediate part manufacturer, component manufacturer, component assembly manufacturer, end product manufacturer, end product user, maintenance operator, EOL collector, recycler or a collection thereof.

The DID may be any identifier that is associated with the DID subject and the DID owner. Preferably, the DID is unique to the DID subject and/or DID owner. The DID may be unique at least within the scope in which the DID is anticipated to be in use. The DID may be a locally or globally unique identifier for any of the above mentioned possible DID subjects. The DID may also be a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) such as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). Moreover, the DID may be an Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI). The DID may be a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) such as a Uniform Resource Locator (URL). The DID may be an Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI). The DID may be a random string of numbers and letters for increased security. In one embodiment, the DID may be a string of 128 letters and numbers e.g. according to the scheme did:method name: method specific-did such as did:example:ebfeb1f712ebc6f1 c276e12ec21 . The DID may be decentralized ID independent of a centralized, third party management system and under the control of the DID owner.

The digital access element as DID document data DID document data 704 may be associated with the DID, i.e. the DID included in the decentral identifier-based owner data 702. Accordingly, the digital access element may include a reference to the DID, which is associated with the DID subject that is described by the DID document 1904. The DID document 704 may also include an authentication information such as the public key. The public key may be used by third-party entities that are given permission by the DID owner/subject to access information and data owned by the DID owner/subject. The public key may also be used for verifying that the DID owner, in fact, owns or controls the DID. The DID document may include authentication information, authorization information e.g. to authorize third party entities to read the DID document or some part of the DID document e.g. without giving the third party the right to prove ownership of the DID.

The digital access element 704 may include one or more representations that digitally link to digital twin data included in the digital twin the digital access element is associated with, e.g. by way of service endpoints. A service endpoint may include a network address at which a service operates on behalf of the DID owner. In particular, the service endpoints may refer to services, such as data providing services, of the DID owner that give access to digital twin data. Such services may include services to read or analyze data contained in the digital twin data. Data contained in the digital twin data may include chemical product declaration data, chemical product safety data, certificate of analysis data, emission data, product carbon footprint data, product environmental footprint data, chemical product specification data, product information, technical application data, production data, chemical composition data or combinations thereof.

The digital access element 704 may include further identifiers, such as digital twin data identifier(s) and a chemical product identifier.

The digital access element 704 may include various other information such metadata specifying when the digital access element was created, when it was last modified and/or when it expires.

The DID and digital access element 704 may be associated with a data registry node such as a centralized data service system or a decentralized data service system 706, e.g. a distributed ledger or blockchain or a decentralized file system. The distributed ledger or blockchain may be used to store a representation of the DID that points to the digital access element 704 . A representation of the DID may be stored on distributed computing nodes of the distributed ledger or blockchain 1606. For example, DID hash may be stored on multiple computing nodes of the distributed ledger and point to the location of the digital access element 704. In some embodiments, the digital access element 704 may be stored on the distributed ledger 706. Each of the computing nodes may store a copy of the distributed ledger 706. In this way, each DID hash can be stored redundantly, thereby allowing for an increased data safety. DIDs associated with a plurality of different digital access element 704 may be included in the distributed ledger 706.

In some embodiments, the digital access element 704 may be stored on the distributed ledger 706, i.e. either additionally or alternatively to the associated DID representation being stored on the distributed ledger 706. In other embodiments, the digital access element 1604 may be stored in a data storage (not illustrated) that is associated with the distributed ledger or blockchain or decentralized file system.

The distributed ledger or blockchain 706 may be any decentralized, distributed network that includes various computing nodes that are in communication with each other. For example, the distributed ledger 706 may include a first distributed computing node, a second distributed computing node, a third distributed computing node, and any number of additional distributed computing nodes (not shown). The distributed ledger or blockchain 706 may include known technology stacks like Bitcoin (see e.g. Bitcoin documentation of November 11 , 2022 published https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Protocol_documentation), Ethereum (see e.g. Ethereum documentation of August 15, 2022 published on https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/), Solana (see e.g. Solana documentation of November 11 , 2022 published on https://spl.solana.com/), Polygon (see e.g. Polygon documentation of November 11 , 2022 published on https ://wiki . polygon. technology/) or other implementations with varying degree of data transactions performed on the distributed ledger. The description of the example framework is only for illustrative purposes and shall not be considered limiting.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flow chart of an example method for monitoring a machine fluid during the use of a machine containing said machine fluid. The method may be performed by the system described in the context of FIG. 5. The machine fluid may be present within the used machine. The used machine fluid may be selected from the group consisting of used lubricants, used engine coolants and used hydraulic fluids.

According to one embodiment of the method, a use trigger may be generated and provided as described in the context of FIG. 5 and FIG. 6A. The use trigger may include the decentral machine identifier and status data (see block 822). According to another embodiment, a use trigger may be generated and provided as described in the context of FIG. 5 and FIG. 6B (see block 802). The use trigger may include the decentral machine identifier. The use trigger may not include status data. In response to receiving the use trigger, status data may be gathered as described in the context of FIG. 5 and FIG. 6B (see block 804).

It may be determined whether to generate one or more data set(s) using at least a part of the status data in decision block 806. If data set(s) are to be generated, the method may proceed to block 808. Otherwise, the method may proceed to decision block 810.

In block 808, the data set(s) may be generated by data set generator 510 as described in the context of FIG. 5.

In block 810, it may be determined whether to update an existing digital twin of the used machine fluid. The existing digital twin may have been generated upon or after production of the machine fluid. The existing digital twin may have been generated priorto supply of the machine fluid to the machine producer 108. If the existing digital twin is to be updated, the method may proceed to block 812. Otherwise, the method may proceed to block 814.

In block 812, digital twin updater 514 may update the existing digital twin as described in the context of FIG. 5.

In block 814, one or more decentral machine fluid identifiers associated with the status data may be provided as described in the context of FIG. 5. The one or more decentral machine fluid identifiers may be provided by decentral machine fluid ID provider 516.

In block 816, one or more digital representations of the status data may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 5. The one or more digital representations may be generated by digital representation generator 518. In block 818, access element(s) including the one or more decentral machine fluid identifiers and the one or more digital representations may be generated as described in the context of FIG. 5. The one or more digital representations may be generated by digital access element generator 504.

In block 820, the generated access element(s) may be provided to a decentral network, such as decentral network 136 of FIG. 1 , for access to the status data as described in the context of FIG. 5. The status data may allow to determine the maintenance intervals of machine fluids in accordance with the current status of the machine fluid, hence allowing to prolong the lifetime of machine fluids and reducing the environmental impact of the material loop 132.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example system for obtaining machine fluid data based on a decentral machine identifier. The system of FIG. 9 may be used to generate maintenance data and/or control data as described in the context of FIG. 11 to FIG. 15.

The machine may be provided in association with the digital access element. The machine 918 may be connected to a machine identification as described in the context of FIG. 5. The machine identification may be read through an ID provider 506. The ID provider 506 may be a smartphone running a machine identification application. The data obtained by the code reading application may be used to determine the decentral access element identifier (denoted hereinafter as DID1) as described in the context of FIG. 5. The data obtained by the code reading application may be used to determine the decentral machine identifier (hereinafter denoted as UUID1) as described in the context of FIG. 5. ID provider 506 may be configured to perform an authentication step with decentral registry node 902. For instance, ID provider 506 may access a decentral IAM network node (not shown) and decentral IAM network node may be configured to provide an access token to ID provider 506 upon successful authentication. This access token may be used by ID provider 506 to access decentral registry node 902. ID provider 506 may provide a decentral participant identifier associated with a participant of the machine ecosystem to decentral IAM network node for authentication.

ID provider 506 may be configured to provide the decentral machine identifier (e.g. UUID1) to decentral network node 904. ID provider 506 may be configured to provide authentication data, such as a decentral participant identifier and optionally authentication data, such as an access token, to decentral network node 904.

Decentral network node 904 may be configured to verify the authentication data received from ID provider 506 with decentral IAM network node 1 906. Upon successful authentication, decentral network node 904 may be configured to access decentral registry node 902 using decentral machine identifier received from ID provider 506 and to retrieve data related to relationship representation(s) associated with the decentral machine identifier. Data related to a relationship representation may include a decentral relationship representation identifier and a digital representation pointing to the respective relationship representation. The digital representation pointing to the relationship representation may point to the decentral data providing network node associated with the respective relationship representation. For instance, the data related to the relationship representation associated with the machine may comprise a digital representation pointing to decentral data providing network node(s) associated with machine fluid data of machine fluids used to produce the machine. Decentral network node 904 or a decentral data consuming network node associated with said decentral network node 904 (not shown) may be configured to access respective decentral data providing network node(s) associated with the digital representation(s) and to request relationship representation(s) associated with the decentral relationship representation identifier(s) from said decentral data providing network node(s), for example as illustrated in FIG. 2.

With reference to FIG. 10, the relationship representation 1004 associated with the machine may include the decentral machine identifier and the decentral machine fluid identifier(s). The relationship representation may be included in a digital twin of the machine 1002. The relationship representation 1008 associated with the machine fluid may include the decentral machine fluid identifier and decentral production input identifiers associated with production inputs used to produce the machine fluid, such as diester base stock and fuel additives. The relationship representation may be included in a digital twin of the machine fluid 1006. The decentral production input identifier(s) are in turn associated with a digital twin of the respective production input 1010, 1012.

Referring back to FIG. 9 with continued reference to FIG. 10, decentral network node 806 may be configured to determine the decentral machine fluid identifier(s) contained in said relationship representation(s). Decentral network node 904 may be configured to access decentral registry node 902 using the determined decentral machine fluid identifier(s) to determine access data associated with said decentral machine fluid identifier(s). Decentral network node 904 or a decentral data consuming network node associated with said decentral network node 904 (not shown) may be configured to access machine fluid data using the decentral machine fluid identifier, the access data and optionally the decentral participant identifier provided by ID provider 506 from respective decentral data providing network node(s). Decentral network node 904 may be configured to determine data related to relationship representations associated with the determined decentral material identifiers as described previously.

In this example, decentral network node 904 may receive a decentral machine identifier associated with a machine from ID provider 506. The decentral network node 904 may access decentral registry node 902 using said decentral machine identifier to determine data related to relationship representation(s) associated with the decentral machine identifier. The determined data related to relationship representation(s) may contain a digital representation pointing to a decentral data providing network node associated with machine data. The machine data may be stored on a storage environment associated with the decentral data providing network node (not shown). The machine data may include a relationship representation indicating decentral machine fluid identifier(s) associated with machine fluids(s) used to produce the machine (see also FIG. 10). Decentral network node 904 or a decentral data consuming network node associated with decentral network node 904 may be configured to access the relationship representation from the decentral data providing network node. Decentral network node 904 or a decentral data consuming network node associated with decentral network node 904 may be configured to access machine data from the decentral data providing network node. Access to the machine data may be authorized based on the decentral participant identifier provided by ID provider 506. Access to the machine data may be controlled by the decentral data providing network node associated with said machine producer. This ensures that machine data can only be accessed by authorized participants of the machine ecosystem, hence avoiding uncontrolled access to the machine data.

Decentral network node 904 may be configured to retrieve decentral material identifier(s) associated with machine fluid(s) used to produce the machine from the accessed relationship representation. Decentral network node 904 may be configured to access data related to relationship representation(s) associated with said decentral machine fluid identifier(s) from decentral registry node 902 using the determined decentral machine fluid identifier(s). Decentral network node 904 or the decentral data consuming network node may be configured to access relationship representation(s), for example from decentral data providing network node 120 associated with machine fluid. The machine fluid data may be stored in a storage environment (DT storage 1 912) associated with the decentral data providing network node 120. DT storage 1 912 may be associated with or under control of the machine fluid producer 102. Decentral network node 904 or the decentral data consuming network node may be configured to access machine fluid data as described previously. The machine fluid data may include the data structure illustrated in FIG. 3A and FIG. 3B.

Decentral network node 904 may be configured to retrieve decentral material identifier(s) associated with materials used to produce the machine fluid, such as the diester base stock and fuel additive, from the accessed relationship representation. Decentral network node 904 may be configured to access data related to relationship representation(s) associated with said decentral material identifier(s) from decentral registry node 902 using the determined decentral material identifier(s). Decentral network node 904 or the decentral data consuming network node may be configured to access relationship representation(s), for example from decentral data providing network node 2 908 associated with diester base stock data. The diester base stock data may be stored in a storage environment (DT storage 2 914) associated with the decentral data providing network node 2 908. DT storage 2 914 may be associated with or under control of the diester base stock producer. Decentral network node 904 or the decentral data consuming network node may be configured to access diester base stock data as described previously.

The same procedure may be performed for the fuel additive data. Hence, decentral network node 904 may be configured to determine, based on the accessed relationship representation(s) and the linking between decentral identifier(s) of starting materials and resulting products/intermediate products, a bill of material tree associated with the machine. The bill of material tree may represent relationships between all materials used to produce the machine and the machine. Recursive determination of decentral identifier(s) using relationship representation(s) hence allows to obtain a machine fluid data and data of further material(s) used to produce the machine.

The material data gathered by decentral network node 904 may be provided to ID provider 506. ID provider 506 may use the gathered data to generate maintenance data or control data as described in the following figures or provide the gathered data to a system configured to generate maintenance data or control data.

FIG. 11 illustrates schematically an example apparatus for generating maintenance data associated with the maintenance of a used machine fluid. The apparatus may implement the method illustrated in FIG. 13. The machine fluid may be present within a used machine. The used machine fluid may be selected from the group consisting of used lubricants, used engine coolants and used hydraulic fluids.

With reference to block 1302 of FIG. 13, a computing device, such as a code reader 202, may be used to determine a machine identification as described in the context of FIG. 5. The machine identification may be used to determine the decentral machine identifier by ID provider 506 as described in the context of FIG. 5.

With reference to block 1304 and block 1304 of FIG. 13 machine fluid data associated with the used machine fluid may be collected from one or more participant node(s) of the decentral network based on the decentral machine identifier provided by ID provider 506. The collected machine fluid data may include status data. The collected machine fluid data may include operation data containing at least one pre-defined maintenance criterium. The pre-defined maintenance criteria may be indicative that maintenance is required if such criteria is fulfilled. Machine fluid data may be retrieved from different nodes associated with participants of the machine ecosystem e.g. the producer of the machine fluid, the producer of the machine or any user of the machine. Machine fluid data may be associated with the used machine fluid's history. Machine fluid data may include characteristics of the machine fluid such as original viscosity, original transmission, machine fluid type, production date of the machine fluid, material composition of the machine fluid, number of performed cleaning cycles or combinations thereof. The machine fluid data may be collected from different nodes associated with participants of the machine ecosystem. For example, status data such as current viscosity, current transmission, performed cleaning operations may be collected from the node associated with the workshop participant or may be part of the use trigger. The status data may be collected based on an access element associated with said status data. Further status data related to the use of the machine fluid in connection with the machine may be collected from the node associated with the machine or the machine manufacturer participating in the machine ecosystem.

For collection of machine fluid data, the decentral machine identifier may be used, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9. The decentral machine fluid identifier may be linked to the decentral machine identifier or the decentral manufacturer identifier (see for example FIG. 10). Such linking may be available to one or more participants of the machine ecosystem.

With reference to block 1306 of FIG. 13, the gathered machine fluid data associated with the used machine fluid may be analyzed by maintenance data generator 1106 for generation of maintenance data. The analysis may be based on the used machine fluid condition included in the status data, original characteristics of the machine fluid and maintenance characteristics of the machine fluid. Original characteristics may include original viscosity, original transmission of the produced machine fluid. Maintenance characteristics may include maximal milage or duration before a maintenance operation is required. Original characteristics and/or maintenance characteristics may be included in the machine fluid data. At least one physical and/or chemical property of the used machine fluid may be determined from the machine fluid data collected via the at least one decentral machine identifier associated with the used machine fluid.

The physical and/or chemical property of the used machine fluid may relate to the physical and/or chemical machine fluid condition. The physical and/or chemical property may signify the wear of the machine fluid including the transmission, the degree of impurities, the degree of wear, the viscosity, the age of the machine fluid, previous maintenance operations performed and maintenance conditions. Maintenance conditions may be determined based on the decentral machine fluid identifier of the machine fluid and machine fluid data associated to it.

The degree of impurities signified by the transmission of the used machine fluid and/or the degree of wear signified by the viscosity of the used machine fluid may be used to determine maintenance data by maintenance data generator 1106. Maintenance data may be generated by comparing the status data with the machine fluid data. In particular, maintenance data may be generated by comparing the at least one physical and/or chemical property of the used machine fluid with the original characteristics and/or the maintenance characteristics. The maintenance data may include data related to machine fluid maintenance interval(s), data related to maintenance operation(s) to be performed on the used machine fluid, data related to at least one physical and/or chemical property of the used machine fluid or a combination thereof. The maintenance data may be generated using data structures correlating the degree of wear to maintenance interval(s) and/or maintenance operation(s).

With reference to block 1308 of FIG. 13, the determined maintenance data may be provided to maintenance data provider 1102. Maintenance data provider 1102 may be configured to provide the generated maintenance data to the machine user 110 and/or machine maintenance shop 112. Maintenance data provider 1102 may provide the determined maintenance data via the decentral network 136. Maintenance data provider 1102 may provide the determined maintenance data via an application available to machine user 110 and/or machine maintenance shop 112. FIG. 12 illustrates schematically a user interface for the maintenance of a used machine fluid, as it may be provided to the used machine holder 110. The user interface 1202 may display information on the maintenance of the machine fluid such as the milage since the last cleanup and the date of the last cleanup. The user interface 1202 may display the status of the used machine fluid, such as the total milage and the degree of impurities. The user interface 1202 may display the determined maintenance data.

FIG. 14 illustrates schematically an example apparatus for generating control data associated with a used machine fluid. The apparatus may implement the method illustrated in FIG. 15. The machine fluid may be present within a used machine. The used machine fluid may be selected from the group consisting of used lubricants, used engine coolants and used hydraulic fluids.

With reference to block 1502 of FIG. 15, a computing device, such as a code reader 202, may be used to determine a machine identification as described in the context of FIG. 5. The machine identification may be used to determine the decentral machine identifier by ID provider 506 as described in the context of FIG. 5.

With reference to block 1504 of FIG. 15 machine fluid data associated with the used machine fluid may be collected from one or more participant node(s) of the decentral network based on the decentral machine identifier provided by ID provider 506 . The collected machine fluid data may include status data. The collected machine fluid data may include operation data containing at least one pre-defined maintenance criterium. The pre-defined maintenance criteria may be indicative that maintenance is required if such criteria is fulfilled. Machine fluid data may be gathered from different nodes associated with participants of the machine ecosystem e.g. the producer of the machine fluid, the producer of the machine or any user of the machine. Machine fluid data may be associated with the used machine fluid's history. Machine fluid data may include characteristics of the machine fluid such as original viscosity, original transmission, machine fluid type, production date of the machine fluid, material composition of the machine fluid, number of performed cleaning cycles or combinations thereof. The machine fluid data may be collected from different nodes associated with participants of the machine ecosystem. For example, status data such as current viscosity, current transmission, performed cleaning operations may be collected from the node associated with the workshop participant or may be part of the use trigger. The status data may be collected based on an access element associated with said status data. Further status data related to the use of the machine fluid in connection with the machine may be collected from the node associated with the machine or the machine manufacturer participating in the machine ecosystem.

For collection of machine fluid data, the decentral machine identifier may be used, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9. The decentral machine fluid identifier may be linked to the decentral machine identifier or the decentral manufacturer identifier (see for example FIG. 10). Such linking may be available to one or more participants of the machine ecosystem. With reference to block 1506 of FIG. 15, the gathered machine fluid data associated with the used machine fluid may be analyzed by control data generator 1406 for generation of control data. The analysis may be based on the used machine fluid condition included in the status data, original characteristics of the machine fluid and maintenance characteristics of the machine fluid. Original characteristics may include original viscosity, original transmission of the produced machine fluid. Maintenance characteristics may include maximal milage or duration before a maintenance operation is required. At least one physical and/or chemical property of the used machine fluid may be determined from the machine fluid data collected via the at least one decentral machine identifier associated with the used machine fluid.

If the degree of impurities exceeds a first threshold, the machine fluid wear is signified as unacceptable and the maintenance condition is signified as cleanable, control data for cleaning of the machine fluid may be generated. Such control data may include the transmission data of the used machine fluid and the decentral machine fluid identifier of the used machine fluid. The control data may further include a maximum threshold for the degree of impurities allowed for such machine fluid. The control data may be provided to a node associated with a machine fluid cleaner or machine maintenance shop 112 for cleaning of the machine fluid. The machine fluid may be cleaned according to methods known in the state of the art to remove impurities. The success of the cleaning operation may be determined by measuring the transmission of the cleaned machine fluid. The cleaning operation may be performed until the transmission of the cleaned machine fluid is below a given threshold, such as a threshold contained in the control data.

If the degree of impurities exceeds a second threshold, the machine fluid wear is signified as unacceptable and the maintenance condition is signified as not cleanable, control data for recycling of the machine fluid may be generated. Such control data may include at least parts of the material composition of the machine fluid and the decentral machine fluid identifier of the used machine fluid. The control data may be provided to node associated with one or more participant(s) of the recycling chain.

If the viscosity is below a minimum threshold, the machine fluid wear is signified as unacceptable and the maintenance condition is signified as recyclable, control data for recycling of the machine fluid may be generated. Such control data may include at least parts of the material composition of the machine fluid and the decentral machine fluid identifier of the used machine fluid. The control data may be provided to node associated with one or more participant(s) of the recycling chain.

Via such decision trees, control data for cleaning and or recycling may be generated by correlating at least one physical and/or chemical property of the used machine fluid to processing properties of one or more apparatus(es) configured to re-use the used machine fluid. In case of cleaning the degree of impurities as physical property may be correlated to the maximum degree of impurities for cleaning apparatuses. In case of recycling, the material composition as chemical property may be correlated to the suitable material compositions for recycling apparatuses.

The control data may include machine-readable instructions for processing the used machine fluid including at least one decentral identifier associated with at least one apparatus configured to perform a re-use operation on the used the machine fluid and at least one decentral machine fluid identifier associated with the used machine fluid. The control data may be associated with one or more process step(s) to reuse the used machine fluid. The control data may relate to a chemical and/or physical treatment of the used machine fluid to recover the chemical material as recyclate.

With reference to block 1508 of FIG. 15, the control data may be configured to initialize a process for cleaning the at least one used machine fluid. The control data may be provided to one or more node(s) of the decentral network, wherein the one or more node(s) may be associated with re-users to e.g. clean and/or recycle the used machine fluid. The control data may include a specification of the re-use method, such as cleaning method and/or recycling method, cleaner identifier and/or recycler identifier. Based on the generated control data the process for reuse to e.g. clean and/or recycle the used machine fluid may be initialized. For example, the cleaning process may be controlled according to the degree of impurities signified by the control data.

The control data may further be configured to initialize a process to determine the duration of use of the machine fluid. For instance, the control data may be used to determine how long the machine fluid was used within the machine prior to requiring recycling. The determined duration may be used to determine a leasing fee or a renting fee associated with the use of the machine fluid. The leasing fee or renting fee may further depend on the degree of wear, such as the degree of impurities. This enables to rent or lease machine fluids to machine producers and/or machine users.

FIG. 16 illustrates an example of a sensor-based sorting method for sorting waste machine fluids included in a machine. The sorting of waste machine fluids present within a machine, such as a vehicle, may be based on a tracer material (e.g. a chemical compound or material uniquely linked to the machine fluid producer having produced the machine fluid containing the respective tracer material). The waste machine fluid may be selected from the group consisting of waste lubricants, waste engine coolants and waste hydraulic fluids. A machine user 110 may take a machine to machine maintenance shop 112 for maintenance. During maintenance, sample(s) of one or more machine fluids may be drawn. The sample(s) may be analyzed with respect to transmission and/or viscosity, as described in the context of FIG. 14. Machine fluid data may be gathered via a decentral network via the decentral machine identifier associated with the machine as described in the context of FIG. 14. Control data indicating recycling to be performed may be generated, as described in the context of FIG. 14.

The sample(s) may further be analyzed, for example as described in the context of FIG. 17, to determine at least one tracer material present within the machine fluid(s). Based on the determined tracer material, the waste machine fluid(s) may be sorted to respective waste machine fluid fractions. Each waste machine fluid fraction may be related to a defined tracer material which in turn may be related to a defined machine fluid producer. This allows to collect waste machine fluid(s) per machine fluid producer, hence allowing a machine fluid producerto recycle compounds within the machine fluid to produce new machine fluids.

FIG. 17 illustrates an example of waste machine fluids separation by the sensor-based sorting method of FIG. 16. This is only an example based on the sorting system illustrated in FIG. 16. Other sorting mechanisms may include a similarly stage sorting process. The machine fluid waste fractions resulting from such sorting may differ from the one illustrated as an example in FIG. 17.

As shown in FIG. 16, waste machine fluid(s) 1702 may be sorted by way of a sensor-based sorting method. FIG. 17 illustrates fluorescence-based sorting 1704 sorting into fluorescent fractions 1706 containing defined fluorescent tracer material(s) and non-fluorescent fraction 1708. The fluorescent fraction(s) 1706 containing a defined fluorescent tracer material may be associated with machine fluid producer A 1716. The non-fluorescent fraction 1708 may include non-fluorescent tracer materials. The non-fluorescent fraction 1708 may not include any tracer materials, e.g. may be free of any tracer materials.

The non-fluorescent fraction 1708 including non-fluorescent tracer materials may be sorted using methods configured to detect one or more ions within the waste machine fluid, such as ICP-MS (Inductively Coupled Plasma - Mass Spectrometry) allowing to sort into ion-containing fraction(s) 1712 and waste 1714. The ion-containing fractions 1712 containing a defined tracer ion may be associated with machine fluid producer B 1718 and machine fluid producer C 1720.

The multi-sensor systems, as for example illustrated in FIG. 17, required to reach the sorting depth for the machine fluid waste fractions to be further processed are complicated, costly and are limited with regards to the quality of the machine fluid waste fractions required for re-use. For example, the degree of contaminants may influence whether a waste machine fluid may be recycled by a given recycling process. For instance, waste lubricants may be recycled via regeneration to obtain base oil. Regeneration may involve removal of contaminants, oxidation products, and additives. However, contaminants such as chlorine and PCB or specific chemical compositions of the lubricant may hinder regeneration, hence rendering such lubricants unsuitable for regeneration.

More enhanced waste machine fluid sorting is thought to overcome such shortage and quality problems. Machine fluid waste is, however, a challenging waste to be separated into fractions for re-use since this waste is not labelled and may contain a different chemical composition depending on the machine the waste machine fluid was used in. For example, the fraction’s composition may critically influence the quality and/or the yield of recyclate such as base oil that can be extracted from the lubricant waste fraction. Such base oil may be produced through regeneration of lubricant waste fractions. However, the quality of the base oil depends on the lubricant waste fraction composition. For example, contaminates influence the quality despite manual collection schemes and reduce the quality of base oil.

Said differently, for machine fluid waste collected through mixed collection, sorting can be disrupted due to excessive contamination or additional sorting steps are required, while the value of recyclate is automatically lowered and therefore the range of applications the recyclate could be used for is limited. Creating more intelligent sorting schemes to separate waste machine fluid(s) with fluctuating machine fluid composition will lower contamination levels, increase the efficiency of sorting and increase the quantity and quality of recyclate.

FIG. 18 illustrates a sorting system for sorting waste machine fluids comprising a decentral network interface 1804 in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The waste machine fluid may be present within a used machine. The waste machine fluid may be selected from the group consisting of waste lubricants, waste engine coolants and waste hydraulic fluids.

The sorting system 1808 may include an interface 1804 to a decentral network node 1812 associated with the sorting system 1808. The decentral network node1812 may be connected to a decentral network 136 as for example illustrated and described in the context of FIG. 1 .

The sorting system 1808 may further include an ID reader 504 configured to read identifier elements such as machine identifiers attached to the machine 918, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5. The ID may be provided to machine fluid data collector 1804 configured to gather machine fluid data. Based on the detection, the decentral machine identifier associated with the machine may be determined by machine fluid data collector 1804, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5. The decentral machine fluid identifier(s) may be gathered using the decentral machine identifier as described in the context of FIG. 9 to FIG. 11. Based on the decentral machine fluid identifier(s), machine fluid data associated with the waste machine fluid(s) 1814 may be gathered from decentral network nodes 120 of the decentral network 136. The machine fluid data of the 1814 may include machine fluid composition data and/or status data. For example, the machine fluid composition data may relate to the chemical compounds used to manufacture the machine fluid, the chemical compounds contained in the machine fluid, the recyclate content of the machine fluid and/or the bio-based content of the machine fluid. Further for example, the status data may signify the status of the used machine fluid in its used state, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5. This may be particularly relevant for recycling streams, where the degree of degradation of the waste machine fluid does not allow to perform one or more recycling processes.

By accessing the digital twins of the waste machine fluid(s) 1814 via the decentral machine identifier, the machine fluid data may be retrieved from the decentral network node(s) 120 associated with the participant 102 owning or providing such data.

Based on such data retrieved via the decentral network 1812, the sorting instruction generator 1808 may generate sorting data according to properties of the waste machine fluid(s) 1814 such as material composition data and/or status data. This allows for simple sorting of waste machine fluid(s) 1814 by accessing data through the decentral network 136. As a result, the data available through the decentral network 136 enhances the sorting depths without the need for further sensors and multi-layer sorting machinery, for example as described in the context of FIG. 16 and FIG. 17. The proposed simple data- driven sorting system 1808 may be used as extension or in combination with sensor-based sorting systems such as the one illustrated in FIG. 16. This way waste machine fluid(s) 1814 which are not digitally linked via linking of respective decentral identifiers (see for example FIG. 10) to the respective machine may be sorted by sensor-based systems, while waste machine fluid(s) 1814 digitally linked via respective decentral identifiers to the respective machine may be sorted with higher sorting depth.

In addition, to the enhanced sorting depth through the data availability by way of the decentral network 136, the tracking and tracing of the composition of sorted machine fluid waste fractions 1816 to 1822 can be enhanced. For example, the decentral machine fluid identifiers associated with waste machine fluid(s) 1814 gathered by the sorting system 1808 may be stored according to the sorting fraction 1816 to 1822. Based on the decentral machine fluid identifier and the sorting logic (described in more detail in FIG. 20) control data may be generated to sort the respective waste machine fluid(s) 1814 to a dedicated machine fluid waste fraction 1816 to 1822. The decentral waste machine fluid(s) 1814 identifier associated with the waste machine fluid 1814 may be assigned to a fraction ID associated with the respective waste fraction 1816 to 1822 the waste machine fluid 1814 is sorted to. This way the machine fluid data of the respective machine fluid 1814 accessed by way of the decentral machine fluid identifier can be stored in connection with the waste fraction ID. Once the batch of the waste fraction 1816 to 1822 is completed the gathered machine fluid data may be aggregated to fraction data by assigning the decentral machine flid identifier associated with the fraction. Such assignment may be executed on controlling the sorting. For example, the composition data per decentral identifier may be aggregated by composition compounds or constituents contained in the waste fraction 1816 to 1822 and their respective quantities, such as amounts. Further for example, the status data per decentral machine flid identifier may be aggregated to signify the degree of impurities or the degree of degradation (via the viscosity). The fraction ID and the fraction data may be provided to the decentral network 136 for access by decentral network nodes 120 to 130 associated with other participants 102 to 116 of the decentral network 136.

FIG. 19 illustrates a flow chart for an example of a sorting method for sorting waste machine fluids that may be implemented in the sorting system of FIG. 18. The waste machine fluid may be present within a used machine. The waste machine fluid may be selected from the group consisting of waste lubricants, waste engine coolants and waste hydraulic fluids.

In contrast to the examples illustrated in FIG. 16 and FIG. 17, where multiple sensors are required for achieving a meaningful sorting depth, the sorting system of FIG. 18 allows for simpler and more reliable sorting. As illustrated in FIG. 18, the sorting can be executed in a single step based on the decentral machine fluid identifier and the data accessible for such decentral machine fluid identifier through the interface 1812 to the decentral network 136. As a result, staged sorting processes based on different sensor techniques can be avoided and the sorting can be conducted more efficiently. FIG. 19 illustrates the single-shot sorting depth achievable by the sorting system of FIG. 18 in comparison to the sensorbased sorting method with staged sorting depth as illustrated in FIG. 17.

FIG. 20 illustrates a flow chart of an example of a sorting method that may be implemented by the sorting system with decentral network interface of FIG. 18.

The machine(s) containing the waste machine fluid(s) 1814 may include an identification element associated with the decentral machine identifier per machine. The identification element may be detected as described in the context of FIG. 5 (see block 2002). The decentral machine identifier per machine may be provided based on such detection, for example as described in the context of FIG. 5 (see block 2004). The decentral machine identifier may be used to gather decentral machine fluid identifier(s), for example as described in the context of FIG. 9 to FIG. 11. Based on the decentral machine fluid identifier(s), machine fluid data associated with the waste machine fluid(s) 1814 such as composition data and/or status data may be gathered by accessing decentral network nodes 120 of the decentral network 136, that are associated with machine fluid producer 102 such as illustrated in the context of FIG. 1 .

The composition data and/or the status data may be gathered from one or more decentral network node(s) 120 of the decentral network 136 (see block 2006). For example, the machine fluid data and/or the status data may be provided by the decentral network node 120 associated with the machine fluid producer 102. Further for example, vehicle data may be provided by the decentral network node 122 associated with the machine producer 108. Further for example, data on production input(s) used to produce the machine fluid may be provided by decentral network node 118 associated with input material supplier(s) 106. To provide data associated with properties of the 1814 from decentral network node(s) 118, the decentral machine fluid identifier associated with the machine fluid 1814 may be linked to decentral identifiers associated with physical entities of the materials or products used to produce the machine fluid 1814. To provide data associated with properties of the 1814 from decentral network node(s) 122, the decentral machine fluid identifier associated with the machine fluid 1814 may be linked to decentral identifiers associated with physical entities of the products produced using the machine fluid 1814.

The linking of the decentral identifiers along the material flow allows for tracking the composition and/or status of the machine fluid. The linking of identifiers may be resolved by the identifier management system of the decentral network 136 based on the decentral machine identifier associated with the machine, for example as described in the context of FIG. 9. Depending on the data requested by the decentral network node 1812 associated with the machine maintenance shop 112 or EOL product collector/sorter 114, the identifier management system may resolve linked identifiers and manage the process for accessing the respective data providing network node(s). The linking of identifiers may be provided on providing the decentral machine identifier associated with the machine containing the waste machine fluid(s)s 1814. For example, the identifier linking may be part of the machine passport associated with the machine. The machine passport may include the decentral machine identifier associated with the machine, a digital representation or link to the machine data and the decentral identifier(s) associated with the machine fluid(s) used to produce the machine and linked to the decentral machine identifier associated with the machine.

If no machine fluid data can be gathered, for example if no linking between decentral machine identifier and decentral machine fluid identifier(s) could be determined or is present, fraction control data may be generated to separate the machine fluid without machine fluid data from the machine fluid(s) for which machine fluid data was gathered (see blocks 2008 and 2010). The machine fluid waste without machine fluid data may be fed to a sensor-based sorting method, such as the one described in the context of FIG. 16 and FIG. 17.

Based on the gathered machine fluid data, fraction control data may be generated (see block 2014). waste machine fluid(s) 1814 may be sorted according to the fraction control data. For example, the sorting system 1808 may include classification instructions configured to match the producer data contained in the gathered machine fluid data to a pre-determined fraction for such machine fluid producer. This may allow to return the waste machine fluid to the machine fluid producer for recycling. This may improve recycling efficiency since the machine fluid producer knows the composition of the machine fluid and may hence select the appropriate recycling process based on the known machine fluid composition.

Further for example, the sorting system 1808 may include classification instructions configured to match the status data to a pre-determined fraction for such status data. The pre-determined fraction may specify the machine fluid type(s), range(s) for degree of impurities, exclusion of specific compounds contained in the machine fluid, or combinations thereof. The pre-determined waste fraction may for example specify the machine fluid types to be included in the waste fraction depending on the recycling process and further use of the recyclate. . Through matching the property data accessed via the decentral network 136 for the specific machine fluid 1814 with the classification instructions, the waste machine fluid(s) 1814 may be separated per pre-defined fraction.

The machine fluid data and/or decentral IDs per machine fluid 1814 per fraction may be gathered. The gathered decentral IDs and/or machine fluid data per fraction may be assigned to a fraction identifier, such as a decentral identifier per fraction. The gathered decentral machine fluid identifiers and/or machine fluid data may be aggregated to fraction data. Fraction data may relate to a fraction composition and/or a fraction status. For example, the composition data per decentral machine fluid identifier may be aggregated by composition, compounds contained in the waste fraction and/or their respective quantities, such as amounts. Further for example, the status data per decentral machine fluid identifier may be aggregated to signify the degree of impurities and/or the degree of deterioration.

Based on the classification and/or the aggregated fraction data, the recycling process and/or machine fluid producer may be determined and/or assigned to the fraction identifier. The classification may include a recycling process specific classification and/or a machine fluid producer specific classification. For example, the material composition per fraction may be specified to include a first class of lubricants and to exclude a second class of lubricants. The first class may include lubricants having low chlorine and PCB contents. For such lubricants, regeneration (e.g. chemical and/or physical recycling) may be specified as recycling process.

The second class of lubricants may exclude lubricants not suitable for regeneration and contaminants impeding the quality of the recyclate. Contaminants may chlorine and PCB. Thus, by excluding such substances or contaminants for recycling already at the sorting stage of machine fluid waste reliably through the tracked composition data accessible via the decentral network results in higher quality waste fractions, base oil and when fed to a regeneration process in safe and reliable operation.

Per fraction a fraction ID and a recycling process ID specifying a recycling process, such as mechanical, chemical and/or thermal (incineration), may be assigned. The fraction ID may include a decentral identifier. The recycling process ID may include a decentral identifier. The decentral identifier(s) may be associated with the aggregated fraction data.

Per fraction a fraction ID and a machine fluid producer ID specifying the machine fluid producer may be assigned.

The fraction data may be provided for access to decentral network node(s) 120, 130. The fraction data may be provided by providing the decentral identifier associated with the fraction to the decentral network 136. The fraction data may be provided by the decentral network node 128 associated with the EOL product collector/sorter 114. The fraction data may be provided by the decentral network node 128 associated with the machine maintenance shop 112. The fraction data may be stored in a dedicated storage associated with the EOL product collector/sorter 114 or the machine maintenance shop 112. Access to the fraction data may be provided by providing a representation linking or pointing to the fraction data. The decentral ID(s) and the representation linking to or pointing to the aggregated fraction data stored in dedicated storage associated with the EOL product collector/sorter 114 or machine maintenance shop 112 may be provided to the decentral network 136 for access by nodes associated with other participants of the decentral network 136. The fraction data may be provided by the decentral data providing network node 128 associated with the EOL product collector/sorter 114. The fraction data may be provided by the decentral data providing network node 126 associated with the machine maintenance shop 112. The fraction data may be accessed by the decentral data consuming network node 130 associated with the recycler 116 or by decentral data consuming network node 120 associated with the machine fluid producer 102.

FIG. 21 illustrates an example data structure used within the sorting method of FIG. 18 based on machine fluid data accessible by way of a decentral network interface.

The data structure illustrated in FIG. 21 is based on the machine fluid data. The machine fluid data may be retrieved based on the decentral identifier from nodes 120 associated with machine fluid producer 102 of the decentral network 136 (see FIG. 1). The machine fluid data may be retrieved from the node(s) 120 associated with participant(s) 102 of the decentral network 136 that own the respective data. The machine fluid data packages 1 to 5 may specify the machine fluid type and machine fluid producer per waste machine fluid. The pre-defined classification may be configured to sort one machine fluid type from a respective machine fluid producer into a single waste fraction. This way the quality of the sorted waste fraction can be increased with respect to the re-use of the waste fraction.

FIG. 22 illustrates an example of the pre-defined classification configured to separate waste machine fluids by recycling process and/or by machine fluid producer. The waste machine fluid may be present within a used machine. The waste machine fluid may be selected from the group consisting of waste lubricants, waste engine coolants and waste hydraulic fluids.

As illustrated in FIG. 18 to FIG. 21 , the machine fluid data may be provided to the sorting system 1808 via an interface 1816 configured to retrieve data from node(s) 120, 122 of a decentral network 136. The data may relate to material composition and/or status data and/or machine data. The pre-defined classification may be configured to sort waste machine fluid(s) 1814 according to the material composition and/or status data and/or producer data into waste fraction(s). The gathered data per waste machine fluid 1814 may be aggregated. The pre-defined classification may be additionally configured to assign the recycling process to the respective sorted waste fraction. Recycling processes may include mechanical, chemical and/orthermal recycling processes. Recycling processes for lubricants may include laundering, reclaiming, regeneration, direct burning, mild reprocessing, severe reprocessing and thermal cracking. Laundering may involve the removal of solids by filtration, de-watering by vacuum distillation and the addition of fresh additives. Mild reprocessing may involve removal of water and sediments from heavy polluted waste lubricants. After this treatment the oil can still contain metals, halogen, and sulfur but can be further used as replacement fuel oil (RFO) for combustion in road stone plants, blended into fuel oil or in power stations. Severe reprocessing aims at separating the combustible portion of heavy polluted WLO from less desirable bottom fractions containing metals, noncombustible ash, and dirt. Chemical or thermal treatments are applied to produce a demetallized heavy fuel oil (HFO), also called heavy distillate, which can be used as marine diesel oil (MDO), etc. Thermal cracking is based on the principle of breaking the larger hydrocarbon molecules with about 30 carbon atoms to obtain hydrocarbons with 10 - 18 carbon atoms through heating in a pressurized vessel. High-quality products such as demetallized HFO and gasoil products are obtained. Recycling processes for engine coolants may include distillation to recover the ethylene glycol and/or propylene glycol and/or ion-exchange processes. Recycling processes for brake fluids may include chemical processes, like esterification.

As illustrated in FIG. 22 the sorted fractions IDs may be assigned to recycling process IDs and/or machine fluid producer IDs. The pre-defined classification may be used for sorting by the sorter. The sorter may connect the decentral machine fluid identifier associated with the fraction ID to the fraction. The fraction ID may include or relate to the decentral identifier of the fraction. The fraction ID and associated fraction data may be provided for access by decentral network node(s) 120, 130 of the decentral network 136 by the decentral network node 1816 associated with the EOL product collector/sorter 114 or machine maintenance shop 112 sorting the machine fluid waste. The recycling process ID or producer ID in association with the fraction ID may also be provided for access by decentral network node(s) 120, 130 of the decentral network 136 by the decentral network node 1816 associated with the EOL product collector/sorter 114 or machine maintenance shop 112 sorting the machine fluid waste. The fraction ID and recycling process ID or producer ID may be accessed by the decentral network node 130 of the 116 or decentral network node 120 of machine fluid producer 102. The recycler 116 or machine fluid producer 102 may retrieve, based on the fraction ID, the fraction data and/or recycling process ID or producer ID from the decentral network node 1816 associated with EOL product collector/sorter 114 or machine maintenance shop 112. The recycler 116 or machine fluid producer 102 may store the fraction data and/or recycling process ID/producer ID in a dedicated storage associated with the recycler 116 or machine fluid producer 102, respectively. Based on the fraction ID, fraction data and the recycling process ID, the recycling process may be operated by the recycler 116. Based on the fraction ID, fraction data and the producer ID, an appropriate recycling process may be operated by the machine fluid producer 102. The fraction data may be used to aggregate recyclate data. Recyclate IDs may be assigned to the recyclate produced from respective fractions. This way not only the sorting process but also the recycling process may be monitored and/or controlled.

The present disclosure has been described in conjunction with preferred embodiments and examples as well. However, other variations can be understood and effected by those persons skilled in the art and practicing the claimed invention, from the studies of the drawings, this disclosure and the claims. Any steps presented herein can be performed in any order. The methods disclosed herein are not limited to a specific order of these steps. It is also not required that the different steps are performed at a certain place or in a certain computing node of a distributed system, i.e. each of the steps may be performed at different computing nodes using different equipment/data processing. As used herein ..determining" also includes ..initiating or causing to determine", “generating" also includes ..initiating and/or causing to generate" and “providing” also includes “initiating or causing to determine, generate, select, send and/or receive”. “Initiating or causing to perform an action” includes any processing signal that triggers a computing node or device to perform the respective action.

In the claims as well as in the description the word “comprising” does not exclude other elements or steps and the indefinite article “a” or “an” does not exclude a plurality. A single element or other unit may fulfill the functions of several entities or items recited in the claims. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in the mutual different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measures cannot be used in an advantageous implementation.

Claims

1. A method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for monitoring a machine fluid during a use of a machine containing said machine fluid, the method comprising: providing at least one use trigger including at least one decentral machine identifier associated with the machine fluid, gathering via the at least one decentral machine identifier status data associated with the machine fluid, providing one or more decentral machine fluid identifier(s) associated with the status data, generating one or more digital representation(s) of the status data, generating an access element including the one or more decentral machine fluid identifier(s) and the one or more digital representation(s), providing the access element to a decentral network for access to the status data by one or more data consuming network node(s) of a decentral network under control of a data providing network node associated with the producer of the machine fluid.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the use trigger is provided by the producer of the machine fluid or a machine user and/or wherein the use trigger is provided based on a pre-determined criterium.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the status data includes at least one physical and/or chemical property of the used machine fluid, at least one physical and/or chemical property of the used machine, maintenance data related to maintenance operations performed on the used machine fluid, the location associated with the maintenance operation(s), or a combination thereof.

4. The method of any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the status data is gathered from one or more data providing network node(s) associated with machine producers and/or machine users and/or machine maintenance facilities connected via a decentral network, wherein the data providing network node(s) the status data is to be gathered from is selected based on the decentral machine identifier associated with the machine.

5. The method of any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein providing the one or more decentral machine fluid identifiers includes gathering at least part of said identifier(s) from existing machine fluid data associated with the machine fluid.

6. The method of any one of claims 1 to 5, further including a step of determining at least one physical and/or chemical property of the used machine fluid from at least part of the gathered status data.

7. The method of any one of claims 1 to 6, further including a step of updating existing machine fluid data associated with the machine fluid with at least part of the gathered status data and/or with at least physical and/or chemical property determined from the gathered status data.

8. The method of any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the access element relates to authorization rules that provide access to the status data depending on a re-use operation to be performed on the machine fluid and/or a participant identifier associated with a participant of the decentral network, wherein the access element is provided for access to the status data including data depending on the re-use operation and/or the participant identifier by one or more data consuming network node(s) associated with one or more maintenance operator(s) executing one or more re-use operation(s).

9. A method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for monitoring a machine fluid during a use of a machine containing said machine fluid, the method comprising: providing at least one use trigger including at least one decentral machine identifier associated with the machine and including status data associated with the machine fluid, providing one or more decentral machine fluid identifier(s) associated with the status data, generating one or more digital representation(s) of the status data, generating an access element including the one or more decentral machine fluid identifier(s) and the one or more digital representation(s), providing the access element to a decentral network for access to the status data by one or more data consuming network node(s) of a decentral network under control of a data providing network node associated with a producer of the machine fluid.

10. A method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for accessing status data related to a monitoring of a machine fluid used within a machine, the method comprising: providing at least one decentral machine identifier associated with the machine, gathering one or more access elements generated and/or provided according to the method of any one of claims 1 to 8 via the provided decentral machine identifier, requesting access to the status data from a producer of the machine fluid.

11. A method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for generating maintenance data associated with a maintenance of a used machine fluid, wherein the machine fluid is used within a machine, the method comprising: providing at least one decentral machine identifier associated with the machine, gathering by a decentral network node machine fluid data including status data associated with the used machine fluid from a decentral network node based on the provided decentral machine identifier(s), wherein the status data is accessed according to the method of claim 10, generating maintenance data by correlating the gathered machine fluid data with the accessed status data, providing the generated maintenance data for maintenance of the used machine fluid.

12. Use of maintenance data as generated according to the method of claim 11 for controlling the maintenance of a used machine fluid.

13. A method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for performing one or more re-use operation(s) on a used machine fluid, wherein the machine fluid is used within a machine, the method comprising: providing at least one decentral machine identifier associated with the machine, gathering status data associated with the used machine fluid according to the method of claim 10, generating control data by correlating the gathered status data with one or more apparatuses configured to perform re-use operation(s) on the used machine fluid and by generating machine-readable instructions for controlling a re-use by the one or more apparatus(es) configured to perform the re-use operation(s), providing the generated control data including the machine-readable instructions for performing one or more re-use operation(s) on the used machine fluid by the one or more apparatus(es) configured to perform the re-use operation(s).

14. An apparatus for performing one or more re-use operation(s) on a used machine fluid, wherein the machine fluid is used within a machine, the apparatus comprising: an identifier providing interface configured to provide at least one decentral machine identifier associated with the machine, a decentral network interface configured to gather status data associated with the used machine fluid according to the method of claim 10, a control data generator configured to generate control data by correlating the gathered status data with one or more apparatuses configured to perform re-use operation(s) on the used machine fluid and by generating machine-readable instructions for controlling a re-use by the one or more apparatus(es) configured to perform the re-use operation(s), a control data provider configured to provide the generated control data including the machine- readable instructions for performing one or more re-use operation(s) on the used machine fluid by the one or more apparatus(es) configured to perform the re-use operation(s).

15. A method, in particular a computer-implemented method, for sorting waste machine fluids, the method comprising the steps of: detecting at least one identifier element per machine including at least one waste machine fluid, wherein the at least one identifier element is related to at least one decentral machine identifier associated with each machine; providing the decentral machine identifier(s) associated with the machine(s) and gathering based on the decentral machine identifier machine fluid data, wherein the machine fluid data is provided based on the provided decentral machine identifier by one or more network node(s) of a decentral network; - assigning the machine fluid waste based on the gathered machine fluid data to one or more machine fluid waste fraction(s), wherein the one or more machine fluid waste fraction(s) relate to waste fraction(s) to be processed by a defined machine fluid producer and/or a physical recycling process and/or a chemical recycling process and/or a recycling process involving physical and chemical treatment(s) and/or a thermal recycling process; - generating, based on the assigned machine fluid waste fraction, sorting data for sorting the machine fluid waste to the assigned machine fluid waste fraction(s); providing the generated sorting data for sorting the machine fluid waste to the assigned machine fluid waste fraction(s).