May 9, 2008
After a batch or two of clean veggie oil that still had water in it (the car ran very poorly on this oil), I have a new appreciation for the value of properly dewatered WVO. I somehow seemed to have skipped the dewatering step in recent weeks. My new (and hopefully improved) filtering & dewatering process is described below.
- Pour dirty oil from one 5 gal bucket through regular kitchen strainer into a second 5 gal bucket. This is done to remove all of the big hunks. Repeat until nothing is caught in the strainer
- Dump filtered oil from five gal buckets into my first 55 gal drum until the drum is full
- Hang a 3500 watt electric water heater element on a length of romex in the first drum and turn it on for 4-6 hours
- Turn off the heater element and allow oil to cool down to room temp (12+ hours). This allows water and small debris to settle on bottom of drum.
- Pump oil off top of first drum through 5 micron cone filter into second 55 gal drum
- When second drum is full, I heat oil in it as done above
- Turn off the heater element and allow oil in second drum to cool back down to room temp (12+ hours)
- Pump oil off top of second drum into 35 or 55 gal storage drum
- Put oil in the car's WVO tank and go for a drive!
I bought (from Ebay) two of these 100 micron bucket filters to simplify the initial filtering.
February 9, 2008
Waste Veggie Oil (WVO) needs a lot of filtration and dewatering before it can be used in your vehicle. Don't underestimate this aspect of your WVO operation. I'm no expert in this subject but here is some info on my setup (a work in progress, by the way.)
Note: my setup is in an unheated area of my house. It gets plenty cold in the winter... you can see your breath. Outside temps can be in the 20s F.
WVO needs to be warm before it can be poured, filtered, pumped, etc. No one can do anything with a solid chunk of used oil. I use a propane cooker ($32, Home Depot) and two big pots I happened to have laying around the house. The benefit of having two pots is that one is always on the cooker heating oil while I am doing something with the other one (usually, pouring warm oil from it into barrel #1).
Note: the propane cooker is to be used OUTDOORS only.
First Barrel (below) is a metal 55 gallon drum I got free from local quick oil change shop. You can get free barrels also if you explain to shop manager what you want to do with them and be polite about it. I cut 6 or 7 inch diameter (too large as it turned out, hence the plywood insert) hole into top of drum with a drill and saber saw. I use a 10 micron cone filter ($15 for 3 pack, Ebay) as my first filter and a barrel pump (about $28, Harbor Freight) to pump oil out of this drum and into second drum. The small strainer is used to catch big hunks of crud and extend the life (somewhat) of the cone filter. I attached 6 feet of 1 inch diameter PVC hose to end of barrel pump. After warming the cold, chunky oil on propane cooker, I carefully pour it into this barrel.
Second Barrel (below) is a 55 gallon poly drum I got free from same quick oil shop. I was really lucky that day. [grin] This barrel has 5 micron cone filter ($15 for 3 pack, Ebay) and another barrel pump (not yet installed) from Harbor Freight.
(I've since removed red clip on end of hose in pic above. I thought it might be needed to keep end of hose from getting loose and spilling oil. As it turns out, it was not needed.)
Home-made Immersion Heater.... once warm oil is poured into first barrel and allowed to settle for a while, it will need heating again before it can be pumped through 5 micron filter in second barrel. I made a simple immersion heater using ideas I saw online (forgot where). Heater consists of 1500 watt, 120 volt electric heater element ($8, Home Depot), a one inch PVC coupler (cheap), a 3 foot length of 1 inch PVC (about $4, Home Depot), an electrical plug, PVC glue, tape, and about 12 feet of 12/2 romex I had leftover from some wiring job I had done.
Making the Immersion Heater
1. wrap tape around threads of heating element until it is bulky enough to fit snugly into PVC coupler
2. run wire through PVC coupler
3. connect black and white wires from romex to heating element
4. push taped end of heating element into coupler
5. wrap tape around end of heating element and coupler
6. use hose clamp to secure connection
7. use PVC glue to connect 3 ft lenght of PVC to coupler
8. connect plug to other end of romex wire
NOTE: BE CAREFUL USING THE HEATER. You could get ELECTROCUTED or BADLY BURNED. This heater is not a toy. NEVER leave it unattended when it is on. Consult an electrician if you are not comfortable working with electricity, water heater elements, etc.
Using the heater... I drop it into first barrel until it is a few inches off the bottom. Turn it on and 30 minutes later, the oil is plenty hot to pump into second barrel. I also hold heater in oil that has solidified inside a cone filter so it warms and drips through filter.
Still to be done
1. buy and install fuel/water separator (probably a Racor unit)
2. buy 120 volt utility pump from Harbor Freight (about $32). Use this to pump oil out of second barrel, into fuel/water separator, and then into small containers.
email me