Waste Vegetable oil

LKE

That's a really good question that I've been hoping someone would ask. I've been reseaching how it's done for diesel's and was wondering if many folks are using it in their oil fired boilers. Animal and vegetable oils can be converted to methyl or ethyl esters which are called biodiesel, but diesel and fuel oil are to the best of my knowledge pretty much interchangeable, so I would think diesel has the higher standards and if wvo converted meets diesel standards it should meet fuel oil standards as well.
The conversion is done by first filtering and then heating and dewatering the oil.Then it is converting by reacting it with alcohol, usually methanol but ethanol can also be used but the reaction parameters are very critical
so methanol is the usual choice.To get a complete reaction you have to either use excess alcohol and higher temperature and pressure or use a catalyst with some excess alcohol.That's the part that makes it really dangerous, it's already dangerous because methanol is quite dangerous by itself.Typically pure lye is mixed with pure methanol making methoxide which is added to the heated dry (no water) oil allowed to react and then washed with water several times to remove all of the lye and excess methanol.It still needs to be dewatered or dryed before it can be used in your diesel.Not something for someone without experiance or training in chemicals.
However their are those who filter it well and have a heated tank in their vehicle that lowers the viscosity enough that some diesels will run on it unconverted.The quality of the oil and the type of diesel make a differance on how successful this is.
I hope we hear from someone who is using it in their boiler for some first hand experiance.

Simply Rad_2

Waste Vegetable Oil

Just wondering there is a way to convert a gas or fuel oil boiler to vegetable oil. I know there are waste oil, petroleum, burners. But what about vegetable oil.. I have friend who owns a restaurant and has about 50 gallons of vegetable oil a week to get ride of. He was wondering if he culd use it for heating?
Thanks Jeffrey

ed wallace

wasteoil

should be able to do it just dont know how there are people driving deisal powered cars that run on used vegatable oil i know they have to strain it and heat it

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Simply Rad_2

Fuel for vehicle

My friend is interested in the waste oil because he is about to convert his diesel truck. He wanted to know if he could also he his house? We will see. Thanks for the bio deisel description.
Jeffrey

Ron Schroeder

Waste oil group on yahoo:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/altfuelfurnace/

Ron Schroeder

You can't run waste veggy oil in an unmodified oil burner even if it is well filtered. The viscosity and flash point is way too high. If the oil is heated to about 275 degrees after the pump but before the nozzle, it will burn but the maintanance is very high. The nozzle will usually foul in about a weak from cokeing and varnish.

I have been succesfully running a highly modified burner on waste veggy oil for over a year. To burn the oil without the need for frequent cleanings, I have been using an air atomized nozzle fed with low pressure metered oil heated to 350 degrees and also with the atomizing air heated to 350 degrees. I had to re-design the retention head to match the flame characteristics of the nozzle.

Running a diesel engine on waste veggy oil is easier than burning it in a boiler cleanly and safely.

Ron

mpolli

Hi Ron,

How difficult is that modification? I am an electronic tech not a burner tech. How low is the low pressure supply? I assume you need to heat the WVO tank a bit also. How do you maintain 350f? How do you "meter" the supply? Basically, is it possible for me to educate myself enough to accomplish this?

Thanks,

Mike

Aidan (UK)

Biodiesel

"Running a diesel engine on waste veggy oil is easier than burning it in a boiler cleanly and safely."

Maybe the most environmentally friendly way to do this would be to run a diesel generator set on the biodiesel and put the heat from the engine into the heating system or into a heat store, as per CHP. Electricity can be something like 5x the price per kW as gas.

http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_link.html

hr

I attended a Clean Burn seminar

last week and the instructor, Thom Elmire told us of several of their Waste Oil boilers running on waste cooking oils. I believe they have some at their plant in PA as well as some other test sites.

Sounds like some minor mods including higher temperatures at the block preheat and the nozzle heater.

He told us the ash deposit is substancially less than waste drain oils. Smells better also www.cleanburn.com

hot rod

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brad rutherford_2

vege oil etc.

Home Power Magazine has had sme articles on this. Also check out Mother Earth News.

Unknown

turn it into biodiesel.