Heating oils WM/T/GO/WVO for centrifuging..an idea...

[diezelcrazee]

My process goes like this:

1 - First drum is an upflow/centrifuge supply. I pour in through the large bung, and have a 2" pipe that goes to the bottom, so all "new" oil goes directly to the bottom of the drum.

2 - I feed my 'fuge from a fitting in the drum which is 1/3 way up from the bottom, so I am using the drums bottom 1/3 for settling, also have a valve on the bottom to drain settled water/crud off.

3 - I pump with air, pressurizing the supply drum to about 4 lbs and it works great. From the supply drum, the WMO goes through the element type heater I linked to in the previous post, and then it enters the centrifuge.

4 - My centrifuge is an open bowl motor driven type, and I built it in my shop. I bought the bowl from WVO Designs. I did a writeup about my 'fuge build on TDS, here is the link, I guess I should write it up here to.

http://www.thedieselstop.com/forums/f22/my-shop-built-open-bowl-centrifuge-305304/


5 - After heating and centrifuging once at a rate of about 9 - 10 gallons an hour, I then blend 15% RUG (in the centrifuge catch drum), then I pump it into a 40 gallon inverted air compressor tank (actually an old tractor propane tank) which has belled ends on it. I have a 1.5" nipple and valve right in the center of the bottom bell, so after the W85 settles in this tank for 2 - 3 days, I crack open the 1.5" valve and usually always get some water. This is after heating and 'fuging once.

6 - After it settles in the propane tank and I drain off the water, I pump it back through the fuge again at about 7 gallons an hour. No heat this time, its thin enough with the RUG.

7 - After the second centrifuging, I then pump it through a 1 micron nominal bag filter which is in a 20" whole house type bag filter canister. From there it goes into my truck supply tank. Also, I have it set up to where I backflush this filter when I inject the RUG into the mix. Haven't had to change a bag yet.

I know, I know, lots of processing, but it really goes pretty good now that I have it down. I would rather overkill it than be changing truck filters ( or worse). I did a lot of reading before I starting building this system, I just basically picked what I thought were the best ideas from several others and used them in my set up.

leswhitt - So far as your question about how much slime/water/dirt I'm getting out, I really don't know. As you know quaility of oil put in can vary quite a bit. For example the last batch didnt' hardly yield any water. So far as dirt and slime, instead of taking my bowl off everytime and scraping it out, I am just wiping it out with rags and then washing it out with gas, so I havent measured the crud.

Guessing I would say that one 28.5 gallon base stock of oil will produce maybe a 1/3 to 1/2 cup of grease/slime. Another reason its hard to measure is that when the 'fuge is shut down, the WVO bowl has drains in it which empties the bowl into the dirty oil bucket. So some of the dirt/crud is draining out there as well.

Sorry to go on so long, and riotwarrior hope you dont mind, not trying to hijack your thread...

 

[leswhitt]

Did not know this



Knew these...

So how does adding RUG to WVO make water seperation any better? If the water is emulsified into the WVO, what do you do add RUG shake and let settle? Help me understand further plz.

I like the idea of this though heat still sits well with me...adding RUG=adding $$$ heat is very little to no $$ if this setup works as anticipated....no mixing...just heat/pump/spray...pump/centrifuge/filter...mix into storage tank with Kereosene for use...

We're talking two different oils, you're referring to WVO and I'm talking about the sweet science of WMO. When you add RUG to WMO, the RUG chemically reacts and breaks the bonds between the oil/water and oil/contaminants. Once these bonds are broken, they separate from the oil and sink to the bottom of your settling tank where they can later be drained. As for adding the RUG to the WMO, I usually do it at the gas station and the force of the gas coming out of the pump does a great job, not to mention that I then drive home with it on a bouncing trailer. If you're doing it at home, I'd think a quick stirring with a paddle/oar/big stick would be good enough.

And yes, you're correct that adding RUG = adding $$$, but from my experience the RUG in combination with the centrifuge is the 1-2 punch that gets the max amount of dirt/water/slime out of the WMO. The RUG also has the added benefit of reducing the WMO to D2 viscosity and also keeping it from gelling up in colder temps. Finally, you won't have to mix W85 with kerosene so depening on how much kero you're planning on blending in, you're probably cheaper on the W85 anyway.

 

[riotwarrior]

We're talking two different oils.....

And yes, you're correct that adding RUG = adding $$$, but from my experience the RUG in combination with the centrifuge is the 1-2 punch that gets the max amount of dirt/water/slime out of the WMO. The RUG also has the added benefit of reducing the WMO to D2 viscosity and also keeping it from gelling up in colder temps. Finally, you won't have to mix W85 with kerosene so depening on how much kero you're planning on blending in, you're probably cheaper on the W85 anyway.

That explains it, my preference is WVO due to less hard particle contaminants in the product, unlike WMO could have all kinds of bad *****...and be acidic to boot....I have considered WMO, just not sure it's a go ahead...however...that could change with education and further research as info becomes more clear for me.

 

[leswhitt]

That explains it, my preference is WVO due to less hard particle contaminants in the product, unlike WMO could have all kinds of bad *****...and be acidic to boot....I have considered WMO, just not sure it's a go ahead...however...that could change with education and further research as info becomes more clear for me.

Education and research are the key since there's tons of lies and half-truths from all the naysayers. Not picking on you, but your statements alone are among some of the unproven things that you'll hear. As food for thought, my WMO is clean down to less than 1 micron and since my injectors only need 5 micron cleanliness, I'm not too worried about the hard particles. As for WMO being acidic, I've never seen it eat up bearings or rubber fuel lines, unlike biodiesel, methanol, and lye.

For many of us, it comes down to cost; I've run enough W85 in my IDI camper (26K lbs) that it's already saved me the entire purchase price of the RV. In my '01 Excursion, I also run W85 and it's already covered the cost of an entirely new replacement engine. Barring vandalism or a complete lack of quality control on my part, I fully expect that at this time next year, W85 will have covered the cost of my Excursion as well.

In the end, it all comes down to what you're comfortable with. My comfort level with WMO is very high not only because of my own successes, but also because of all the other folks that are running it without any failures. WVO is also a proven fuel but due to heating issues, two tank systems, and the added difficulty, I've shied away from it. Just like mixing/filtering WMO is second nature to me though, there's some WVO folks that are the same way and have it all down pat. Either way, post up your experiences so we can all benefit

 

[Boost_Happy]

Well I'll tell my story then for my summer blending lately.... I've been blending about 50/50 with D2 and a Mineral oil found in a/c systems. I also throw in a quart of 2 stroke oil and a quart of naptha for an injector cleaner in to my mix of 50 gallons. I ster it all in one drum, let it sit for a day or two, then its into my 2 tank processor. goes threw the filters 20/5/1 micron and into the tank via 4 psi air pressure, then after that it gets pumped into the other tank will passing threw the centrifuge, that way i know its all gone threw it atleast once. then i switch a few valves so it just pumps in a loop threw the fuge and that tank for 10-12 hours at 50 galons an hour. after that, with the mineral oil, its damn near as clear as diesel, but the mineral oil is already really clean to begin with. no heat is needed in this process either and my 01 cummins loves it. mineral oil is almost thin enough to run strait, just being careful since im still running the vp44.