What color is your WMO?

[leswhitt]

Up until this point, the majority of my WMO has either been jet black (diesel WMO) or had a hint of red (ATF WMO). This last batch of about 250 gallons came from a place that had their barrels outside and was a mix of hydraulic oil, engine oil, small amounts of ATF, anti-freeze, and rain water.

After letting it settle and draining off the water and anti-freeze, I added 20% RUG and let it settle again. Then I drained it again and only pulled a very small amount of water/sludge off the bottom. I then went ahead and centrifuged for about 18 passes through my PA Biodiesel pressure driven fuge, let it settle again, then sucked off the top and emptied my tote of all but 50 gallons.

This oil has a light/medium brown appearance and isn't nearly as viscous as my regular WMO, it's very thin by comparison. When I dribble it though an open flame, it's definitely flammable. I tried a hot plate test like the WVO guys but the drops were sizzling but then I didn't know if that was caused by the RUG in the mix or true water. Then I thought to put it in a glass jar, and stick that in a pot of boiling water for about 35-45 minutes. The resulting separation was a VERY thin layer of contamination on the bottom, probably less than 3% of the overall volume of the jar. Finally, thinking that maybe it was super emulsified, I poured a measured amount of water into the jar which promptly went right to the bottom of the jar and separated from the oil (within 3-5 minutes).

So what do you guys think? Have you ever had WMO that looks like this? Does it sound like water is still mixed in? I have about 250 gallons of the finished product, about 125 gallons centrifuging right now, and plan to burn this on my family's upcoming 1800 mile Christmas trip and then a 2400 mile trip about a month after that.

 

[spg]

I would not want to use oil with water or antifreeze in it.

 

[leswhitt]

We all agree on that but the reality is that many of us pick up WMO that has water/anti-freeze/pollutants in it. Removing it is pretty easy unless you get some "super mix" where the oil and water have completely bonded. I don't think that's what I have but it'd be reassuring to have someone else chime in and say their hydraulic oil/waste oil mix is also a light/medium brown.

 

[Blind Driver2]

I have 200 gallons of emulsified oil. It's been 'fuged once and the steam was rolling fog into my barrel. It's all back in my IBC tote awaiting warming weather. I never use RUG as it makes my exhaust stink.

I plan to buy a water heater by Spring. Then I'll have a full 2000 watts of heater power

That should break down the emulsification

 

[homelessduck]

I had 4 gallons of pure wmo and 4 gallons of pure atf. The black wmo mixed with red atf made the mix.brown. This was my.own oil and I know it.was coolant and water free.

 

[leswhitt]

I have 200 gallons of emulsified oil. It's been 'fuged once and the steam was rolling fog into my barrel. It's all back in my IBC tote awaiting warming weather. I never use RUG as it makes my exhaust stink.

I plan to buy a water heater by Spring. Then I'll have a full 2000 watts of heater power

That should break down the emulsification

So if you were to crack the valve on the bottom of your tank right now, what would come out? Would you get any water at all or just the emulsified oil? Once it's emulsified, have you found that settling by itself won't work?

 

[leswhitt]

I had 4 gallons of pure wmo and 4 gallons of pure atf. The black wmo mixed with red atf made the mix.brown. This was my.own oil and I know it.was coolant and water free.

That's good to know, thanks!

 

[Blind Driver2]

So if you were to crack the valve on the bottom of your tank right now, what would come out? Would you get any water at all or just the emulsified oil? Once it's emulsified, have you found that settling by itself won't work?

I initially got the free water out, but the rest of light brown. I doubt if letting it sit for a year would have made a difference.
It's been sitting for more then 6 weeks. I'll go see what I can get out of it tomorrow.

 

[leswhitt]

So last night I went ahead and put about 25 gallons of it in my truck. This was after I pumped out the pre-centrifuge holding that had 35-45 gallons in it. Even after sucking it out of my holding tank, through my trash pump, and into my disposal tote, I was able to immediately drain off free water. After another 10 minutes, it had more or less completely separated into two layers.

Based on that and all the other tests, I figured that my brown oil probably had a little bit of water in it but not enough to be concerned, and most likely got it's color from hydraulic oil (which I knew was mixed in the supply) and maybe some ATF (I didn't know it was mixed in the supply). I forgot that I also took a sample from the bottom of my "post-centrifuge" holding tank and it was still dark from the approximately 75 gallons of black WMO that was still in there when I added the brown oil. It seems like emulsified oil would have went to the bottom of the tank so I figured that my brown mix is lighter than my black mix, which hopefully means enough water isn't in the brown mix to make it sink to the bottom.

After topping off the tank I drove about 55 towing miles (about 1.5-2k load) and didn't notice a difference. I parked her last night so today the tank should be homogenous and I'll know for sure if my fuel is up to par or not. Another factor that helps alleviate concerns is that I read an online article where they tried burning emulsified oil in a diesel engine and didn't have any ill effects. I leave on a near 2,000 mile road trip on Friday, I'll post up when I've completed the first leg with how it ran.

 

[leswhitt]

Good article about removing water from oil:

http://www.machinerylubrication.com/Read/503/removing-water-in-oil

 

[goatwrangler]

subscribed

 

[Kalashnikov]

A few batches ago I had maybe 15 gallons of ATF mixed with 50 gallons of old gas to about 45 gallons of WMO. It was a brownish color and worried me a little that the old gas was mostly water. After a few days you could see the water settled. I ran it and it burned fine. I have seen black, grayish, dark blue, and dark goldenish and they have all burned fine. The bluish hydraulic oil mix has definitely been the best. I have some golden stuff coming up that I'm interested to try. It is quite a bit thicker however.

I had some emulsified oil/anti-freeze from the cooling system of one of my trucks. The oil eventually separated from the coolant after a year/year and a half. I have some hydraulic/gear oil peanutbutter mix that's been sitting for a good few years that I've been meaning to check on.

 

[leswhitt]

I forgot that I had this picture, this was the batch of oil that I'm talking about after I picked it up and let it settle in my tote for ~36 hours.

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[Kalashnikov]

Wow, there are a lot of nasties in that batch! I've never had any WMO settle out THAT much junk. I think 2" is about the most I've ever had.

 

[Blind Driver2]

Wow, there are a lot of nasties in that batch! I've never had any WMO settle out THAT much junk. I think 2" is about the most I've ever had.

I've had it that bad from drums sitting outside. I learned to put a stick in the drum first to check for water. I put the stick next to the drum and make a scribe a line. Then suck out the money above the line.