Greetings to all my fellow WVO/WCO users. What a wonderful bunch of helpful, informative, cooperative and, probably, highly individual/pioneering/ECCENTRIC individuals. I warn you now, THIS is going to be a BIT LONG, but I hope you stick wit it.
I am very new to this and am a committed WVO, as opposed BD, user. I live in Opua (WHERE? I here you ask) which is at the top end of the North Island of New Zealand. It is known as "The Winterless North."
My first topic in this thread is:-
"TALLOW."
I currently get my "raw material," (used Cottonseed Oil) from a couple of local "chippies" who change their oil every couple of days. It is interesting to compare oil that has been used for about 2 weeks before changing, and oil that is changed every few days. I have a chemist friend who analyses oil for me and the Free Fatty Acid content has vaired from 1.7% which is good, apparently, to 3% which is "top end." I have some more samples which have yet to be done, I will post the results. Anyway, back to Tallow. I currently put the oil through a failry wide "tea strainer" type thing, to get the larger lumps of batter etc out and then I "hot filter" it. The "Opua(WV) Oil Refinery is a bit "Mickey Mouse" at present, but is eveolving. I heat the oil in a 4 litre fryer and then filter it through a kitchen towel into a large coffee urn, thence into the truck. I do not remove the "Tallow," it all goes into the tank and seems to work fine, I guess it must do as I have run out of WVO on occasion amd had to run on diesel for a while until I could make a fresh brew. In the course of the "Opua(WV) Oil Refinery's evolution, I now have a large 100 micron filter/strainer specifically designed/manufactured to fit over a 200 litre drum, which obviously has had the top removed. This means that I can dump the WVO straight into the 100 micron strainer and leave it filter into the drum. The 100 micron strainer now traps the tallow as well as the large bits of batter etc and makes the straining process really slow. I have basically 2 choices, as I see it, and this why I am writng so much about Tallow as I really will appreciated imput. I can either do what I have been doing, strain the big bits out and continue to use the tallow or put the whole lot through the 100 micron strainer, wait quite a long time and then get rid of the tallow elsewhere. I did put 1x20 litre batch into the 100 micron strainer and it took AGES, the other drawback, to me, was that I ended up with about 5 litres of tallow in the strainer. I welcome comments on experiences with Tallow.
FILTERING
As mentioned above, I currently "hot filter" and then the filtered stuff goes into the truck. It has been suggested that "cold filtering" is good but slow and so I decided to do some experiments.
I "cold filtered" a fairly small amount and put a sample in a jar. It is BOOOOOOOOOOOOOTIFUL and clear. My wife remarked that it looked good enough to cook with. It will be interesting to find out the Free Fatty Acid % in this.
I then put some "just hot filtered" in a jar with some cold filtered. That was interesting in that there was quite a bit of "stuff" that settled to the bottom. The oil at the top was almost as clear as the cold filtered.
I then put some only "hot filtered" in a jar and finally some "straight from the chippy" in another jar.
I then, purely because of lack of space, put all 4 samples on an outside window ledge. The cold filtered remained the same, the "part hot part cold" had become cloudy again, the hot filtered ahd changed very little and the "straight from the chippy" was the same. I could not for the life of me understand why the "part hot part cold" had clouded and then it dwaned on me, maybe the geat from the sun through the window had warmed that sample enough to move the sediment around!!! EUREKA (perhaps) I have now put that sample in the fridge to see what happens. I have a WONDERFUL wife who indulges my eccentricities!!
I also tried other experiments. I put a jug of "hot filtered" in the fridge and another jug in the freezer. Both batches had the Tallow in them. The jug in the fridge did not solidify and the jug in the freezer solidified just at the top. I really don't know what, if anything, these experiments prove, or even just signify, it is just that I found them interesting to do, especially because of the Tallow in just about all the batches.
I hope that I have not bored you all with this. I find this alternative fuel thing totally fascinating. I have read about Bio Diesel and am still firmly convinced that it is being pushed by governments and the MTA, certainly here in New Zealand, in order to keep "Big Oil" involved and making money. There would be no place for "Big Oil" in the WVO/WCO industry, certainly not as I would see it developing anyway.
Kindest rgards
Otherside532
I am very new to this and am a committed WVO, as opposed BD, user. I live in Opua (WHERE? I here you ask) which is at the top end of the North Island of New Zealand. It is known as "The Winterless North."
My first topic in this thread is:-
"TALLOW."
I currently get my "raw material," (used Cottonseed Oil) from a couple of local "chippies" who change their oil every couple of days. It is interesting to compare oil that has been used for about 2 weeks before changing, and oil that is changed every few days. I have a chemist friend who analyses oil for me and the Free Fatty Acid content has vaired from 1.7% which is good, apparently, to 3% which is "top end." I have some more samples which have yet to be done, I will post the results. Anyway, back to Tallow. I currently put the oil through a failry wide "tea strainer" type thing, to get the larger lumps of batter etc out and then I "hot filter" it. The "Opua(WV) Oil Refinery is a bit "Mickey Mouse" at present, but is eveolving. I heat the oil in a 4 litre fryer and then filter it through a kitchen towel into a large coffee urn, thence into the truck. I do not remove the "Tallow," it all goes into the tank and seems to work fine, I guess it must do as I have run out of WVO on occasion amd had to run on diesel for a while until I could make a fresh brew. In the course of the "Opua(WV) Oil Refinery's evolution, I now have a large 100 micron filter/strainer specifically designed/manufactured to fit over a 200 litre drum, which obviously has had the top removed. This means that I can dump the WVO straight into the 100 micron strainer and leave it filter into the drum. The 100 micron strainer now traps the tallow as well as the large bits of batter etc and makes the straining process really slow. I have basically 2 choices, as I see it, and this why I am writng so much about Tallow as I really will appreciated imput. I can either do what I have been doing, strain the big bits out and continue to use the tallow or put the whole lot through the 100 micron strainer, wait quite a long time and then get rid of the tallow elsewhere. I did put 1x20 litre batch into the 100 micron strainer and it took AGES, the other drawback, to me, was that I ended up with about 5 litres of tallow in the strainer. I welcome comments on experiences with Tallow.
FILTERING
As mentioned above, I currently "hot filter" and then the filtered stuff goes into the truck. It has been suggested that "cold filtering" is good but slow and so I decided to do some experiments.
I "cold filtered" a fairly small amount and put a sample in a jar. It is BOOOOOOOOOOOOOTIFUL and clear. My wife remarked that it looked good enough to cook with. It will be interesting to find out the Free Fatty Acid % in this.
I then put some "just hot filtered" in a jar with some cold filtered. That was interesting in that there was quite a bit of "stuff" that settled to the bottom. The oil at the top was almost as clear as the cold filtered.
I then put some only "hot filtered" in a jar and finally some "straight from the chippy" in another jar.
I then, purely because of lack of space, put all 4 samples on an outside window ledge. The cold filtered remained the same, the "part hot part cold" had become cloudy again, the hot filtered ahd changed very little and the "straight from the chippy" was the same. I could not for the life of me understand why the "part hot part cold" had clouded and then it dwaned on me, maybe the geat from the sun through the window had warmed that sample enough to move the sediment around!!! EUREKA (perhaps) I have now put that sample in the fridge to see what happens. I have a WONDERFUL wife who indulges my eccentricities!!
I also tried other experiments. I put a jug of "hot filtered" in the fridge and another jug in the freezer. Both batches had the Tallow in them. The jug in the fridge did not solidify and the jug in the freezer solidified just at the top. I really don't know what, if anything, these experiments prove, or even just signify, it is just that I found them interesting to do, especially because of the Tallow in just about all the batches.
I hope that I have not bored you all with this. I find this alternative fuel thing totally fascinating. I have read about Bio Diesel and am still firmly convinced that it is being pushed by governments and the MTA, certainly here in New Zealand, in order to keep "Big Oil" involved and making money. There would be no place for "Big Oil" in the WVO/WCO industry, certainly not as I would see it developing anyway.
Kindest rgards
Otherside532
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