Thinning vs heating before centrifuging?

[Mt_Man]

I haven't used my heater in a long time because I have been thinning my oil before centrifuging. I had a batch this summer in the warm weather. Got a bunch of sludge out. It was thinned and warmer then 60f. Hot hot weather. I am wondering if even thinned being warmer made that much of difference. Thinking only 20-30degrees. From 40/50 to 70/80f. Does heat allow the oil to release sludge? Guess I will have to put some power to my heater and see if it changes the amount I am getting out.
What are your findings?

 

[u2slow]

Bio or wmo?

As far as wmo goes, heat speeds up what gravity is ultimately doing. We use this on bilge tanks, when fitted, to separate oil out for dedicated disposal/recycling.

When centrifuging, you want the incoming oil hot, like 90-95°C for best separation. Too hot and you evaporate the water seal. On some of the ships at work, the engine oil is centrifuged on the fly in lieu of media filters.

 

[Mt_Man]

Wmo for me. I blend with gas so I really don't want to boil the gas out. My understanding for centrifuging was to lower the viscosity, which could be done by heat or thinning. Wonder if it would be better blend after centrifuging with heat. But it would definitely increase the kilowatts consumption and decrease the savings.
good info though. The Marine world has some cool centrifuges!

 

[Jesus Freak]

Wmo for me. I blend with gas so I really don't want to boil the gas out. My understanding for centrifuging was to lower the viscosity, which could be done by heat or thinning. Wonder if it would be better blend after centrifuging with heat. But it would definitely increase the kilowatts consumption and decrease the savings.
good info though. The Marine world has some cool centrifuges!

Hey, since I got you 2 in one place, I want to ask: I'm possibly going to be getting some high octane racing fuel from some guys that race cars and trucks. Probably, 110-120 octane. Any harm in dumping it in my oil mix?

 

[SkylabTech86IDI]

Hey, since I got you 2 in one place, I want to ask: I'm possibly going to be getting some high octane racing fuel from some guys that race cars and trucks. Probably, 110-120 octane. Any harm in dumping it in my oil mix?

This comment has me now wondering about what would theoretically be waste motor oil’s octane/cetane rating?

What’s happens to the total Octane value of the combusted fuel mix say if you mix the high octane gas with the wmo, do you lower the total octane rating of the combusted fuel to say for example 50octane? I’m sure it’s much more complicated than this but I’m no engineer

 

[SkylabTech86IDI]

This diesel fuel shortage has me wondering more about these trucks that run wmo and restaurants kitchen grease/sludge.

…so How do you determine the right ratio of fuels to mix, anyways? Do you start with the least about of fuel mix and slowly increasing the mix until driveability seems to suffer and then slightly dial the ratio back to lock it in?

I’d imagine you mix everything with diesel fuel being the base of any fuel solution that you end up pumping through the IP. then again there are those who are running straight waste motor oil but I can’t see how without cutting/thinning it with a diesel fuel

 

[u2slow]

I don't mix with gasoline, so I don't know.

Our injection systems are designed for diesel, so that is ideal. As you increasingly blend with heavier, dirtier fuel you're going to have increasing undesirable aspects.

If you want a perspective of what you can burn in a diesel engine, reasearch the old duece-and-a-half multi-fuel engines, and the use of heavy fuel oil (aka bunker C) in the marine industry.

 

[Jesus Freak]

I don't mix with gasoline, so I don't know.

Our injection systems are designed for diesel, so that is ideal. As you increasingly blend with heavier, dirtier fuel you're going to have increasing undesirable aspects.

If you want a perspective of what you can burn in a diesel engine, reasearch the old duece-and-a-half multi-fuel engines, and the use of heavy fuel oil (aka bunker C) in the marine industry.

Thank you @u2slow , that's a fine starting point and some really good places to look.

 

[Jesus Freak]

This diesel fuel shortage has me wondering more about these trucks that run wmo and restaurants kitchen grease/sludge.

…so How do you determine the right ratio of fuels to mix, anyways? Do you start with the least about of fuel mix and slowly increasing the mix until driveability seems to suffer and then slightly dial the ratio back to lock it in?

I’d imagine you mix everything with diesel fuel being the base of any fuel solution that you end up pumping through the IP. then again there are those who are running straight waste motor oil but I can’t see how without cutting/thinning it with a diesel fuel

As far as cutting it with diesel, start at 50/50 and work it up to what you like. If you do gasoline stay around 10-15%. As far as octane or cetane rating, that's for a whole other group of people. @NeverHave-I-Ether has enough invested in this that he actually might know that stuff.

 

[Mt_Man]

@SkylabTech86IDI

Make Black Diesel - US Filtermaxx

How to make cheap fuel from waste oils with simple blending.

usfiltermaxx.com

This is a good write up by usfiltermaxx on blending and wmo methodology.

Have to see what your truck likes and work up the wmo ratio. I blend to have similar viscosity as diesel. Ideally you would have blends similar viscosity and specific gravity as diesel. Dual tanks with heaters are the most effective for running higher ratios of wmo(or wvo).

@Jesus Freak
I have used a bunch of 100octane for my blending works just fine in my 6bt. Starts easier than diesel haha. I have seen gas/wmo combos smoke more then other blend combinations. So as long as it's not methanol I think it would be worth a small batch to see? If it's methanol use it in a water/methanol injection system.

Those hypercycle engine design are pretty cool. Multifuels are what started me on this road...as it were lol

 

[Mt_Man]

So I have been running a thinned batch through the fuge and not getting much. Over two days got trace amounts of sludge pulled out. Well just did 24hr run with the heater on set at 70f. Totes actually insulates pretty well and then temp came up pretty fast really. Centrifuges heated up like it would be expected. Future set up will be inside and climate controlled. Running the heater was double the power consumption. Looks like in 24hr took almost 23kw. Went from about 5.6amps(fuges and pump) 120v to 10.6amps.
This is all I got out for 24hr of filtering at around 20-30gph. Which is more then 44f but still not much. Wonder what warmer would do.

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[Jesus Freak]

How many gallons did you centerfuge to get that much?

 

[Mt_Man]

~275gal

 

[Jesus Freak]

So, looking at the picture, I'd guess that's about half a cup of stuff that has the consistency of maybe wheel bearing grease?

 

[Mt_Man]

Yah maybe 1/4cup. It was denser then some sludge had to scrape it out with my scraper instead of my spatula