Free Kerosene!

[mohavewolfpup]

Baby Steps... Baby Steps...

Desert rat here in town had "Free Kerosene!" up on craigslist. Went and got it, have about 2.5 gallons worth. "Clean and ready" turned out to be a ton of rust particles in it. So far i've used a kidney stone filter (something my dad got me from work) and then tried some coffee filters in it. Not too shabby, it's actually much clearer. I had to get inside and cook dinner, so I just filtered out the rest I could and put into a plastic gas can I have laying around.

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Here's the "patient"

I still need to do a lot more filtering, it's pretty bad. What are some good tips for low budget filtering? The coffee filters seem to be working fairly well, although slow. Seemed to slow down sometimes, even when "rotated" to a different clean portion of it.

Water? I'll assume this may have a lot of water in it. I'll probably put some in a clear container and see how it settles? How is water usually filtered out (aside from my racor unit onboard?)

I'm thrilled so far. Yeah it's taking some work (nothing is ever free) but it's kinda like buying a $200 solar panel kit from harbor freight. Gotta start somewhere then go large scale!

Wanted to take some more photos, but that's hard to do with kerosene drenched paws (thank god for nitrile) and we've all seen rust particles in fuel before!

My plans are to filter it as low as I can go, then dump it in the tank and mix with diesel. Around 2.5 gallons or so of free fuel for my truck, can't go wrong. It's Klean Strip brand, says undyed also (interesting? thought it would be for obvious reasons)

What I learn here will also trickle down into the rear tank on my truck. Never filled it, been suspicious the previous owners I bought it from may have had kids dump dirt in the tank. Need to drop the tanks anyway for shower head mods, so i'll get my chance! Hopefully there is some decent fuel in it!

edit: Jesus Ham Crayons... $44 at lowes for 5 gallons of kerosene? :***: $8.80/gallon is disgusting!

I didn't have plans to rush up and drain them of fuel, just nosy. Talk about blatant racketeering and keeping people down.... I figured it would be on the same level as cooking oils, those are sky high also to prevent folks like us from getting around their monopolies!

 

[NTOLERANCE]

See my other thread on the 1 micron filter bags. They are about $6 each.

 

[mu2bdriver]

I use a Mr. Funnel to filter out water, sediment, etc. out of my fuel for all equipment. Even coming out of the pump at the station you would be amazed what you find. One time I had a glob of water at the bottom, got an attendant from inside, and he said 'that's normal.'

www.mrfunnel.com

 

[njdub]

I use a Mr. Funnel to filter out water, sediment, etc. out of my fuel for all equipment. Even coming out of the pump at the station you would be amazed what you find. One time I had a glob of water at the bottom, got an attendant from inside, and he said 'that's normal.'

www.mrfunnel.com

I might have to pick up one of these just as an added protection before the tank.

OP- Be careful if there is copious rust in the kerosene. Id be weary of putting that in my tank.

 

[mu2bdriver]

I might have to pick up one of these just as an added protection before the tank.

My only complaint on it is that the filtering element in the center of the funnel does not go directly to the bottom of the tank and you end up with about 1/4 cup of fluid swirling at the bottom. I don't know if it was designed with the expectation of filtering really dirty fuel and you not caring about the bottom sludge and contaminants, but when you're filtering generally clean fuel, I don't like wasting a drop and will usually pour the remainder in a fuel can to be filtered again to try to get everything in. Some others have made molded plastic elements to stick inside which lift up the bottom so you only have a few drops that won't pass through.

 

[mohavewolfpup]

There is, there was a lot of sludge in the bottom but I left that alone. Got all the fuel out anyway. It's a interesting process, it goes from a cloudy orange to a extremely clear color the more I filter it. I used several coffee filters, and it trapped a lot of rust. There are still little bits floating around, but I expect the coffee filters to work well. Right now i'm letting it settle, then i'll pour it out and filter again.

I'm patient, and it's a fun process so far. What I learn here (along with confidence) I'm scaling up slowly into a big production setup for alternative fuels

 

[njdub]

Post more pictures after you filter it more. I'd be curious to see how good coffee filters can do on this.

 

[mohavewolfpup]

Post more pictures after you filter it more. I'd be curious to see how good coffee filters can do on this.

wish I had taken photos before, but it was difficult taking the gloves off each time. It was literally blood orange with the rust. I use a filter that caught bigger particles, then the coffee filters did the rest. Took a while to trickle out sometimes, but it would come out clear