Can anyone tell me what this glop is good for?

[virg Biofuels Forum Newbie Find all posts View Profile Close virg]

Help me, I'm new.

One week ago, I picked up my first ever batch of waste cooking oil.
It was hot and liquid when I got it from the fried chicken restaurant.
The next morning, I couldn't pour it out of the can, it was the consistency of butter. I had to heat it up a bit to pour it into a "cubee" (plastic jug).
So far, it has not separated one bit.
It does not look dirty, it is yellowish white in color. No chunks of food, either.
I spied them filling up the fryer, the new "oil" appeared opaque white and thick as it was being poured in.

Please help me in any way possible as to how and what I should do to this stuff. My end use would be to fuel a stationary diesel engine.

My most immediate concern is whether I should go back for 150+ liters more of potential junk this sunday. So, hurry! (Thanks)

[gwalker Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gwalker]

Re: Can anyone tell me what this glop is good for?

It should be great to convert to biodiesel but probably uselessat your location, without heating, to use as straight vegetable oil as it will solidify in your tank, fuel lines, fuel filter and injection pump.
George

[joe Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close joe]

Re: Can anyone tell me what this glop is good for?

Hi proby,

what you have collected sounds like tallow. LIquid above about 30ish degrees and solid below that temp. its still good for bio, have you titrated it yet. That will tell you how good it is or otherwise.

Convert it and then do some cloud\gell testing to see what temp its good at. You may need to blend it with distillate through winter to see you through the cold mornings. I'm looking at doing that with the last of my "glob" i've collected. But its just not getting cold yet.... Strange.

[Fitian Was here Find all posts View Profile Close Fitian]

Re: Can anyone tell me what this glop is good for?

* I got it from the fried chicken restaurant.

* The next morning, I couldn't pour it out of the can, it was the consistency of butter.

* I spied them filling up the fryer, the new "oil" appeared opaque white and thick as it was being poured in.

Simply NOT good to use unless you turn it into Biodiesel.

Look for another places. Fish n chips or just chips - Stay away from places that use fried chicken or pre-cooked/fried products ( this oil takes way too long to settle sometimes it even settles to 20% oil only) if you want liquid oil to use in a SVO converion.

Good luck

[virg Biofuels Forum Newbie Find all posts View Profile Close virg]

Re: Can anyone tell me what this glop is good for?

Thanks for the speedy replies.

what you have collected sounds like tallow.

What exactly is tallow, practically speaking?

have you titrated it yet. That will tell you how good it is or otherwise.

I've never "titrated" anything in my life (at least not intentionally).
I will go about trying to figure out what this means. Any info, advice, instruction, and/or "links" will be greatly appreciated.

Convert it and then do some cloud\gell testing to see what temp its good at.

Pretty much same as above. In other words, I really don't have any idea what you are saying, but I will try and find out. Any help, as above, is appreciated.

My question:

My most immediate concern is whether I should go back for 150+ liters more of potential junk this sunday.

Your answers:

It should be great to convert to biodiesel

its still good for bio

Simply NOT good to use unless you turn it into Biodiesel

It gets cold here, too. I was kind of figuring on having to do the "bio" thing anyway. Is it difficult? Costly? Is there much unusable by-product (and is this determined by the quality of the WCO? How does "tallow" rate?)?
Or is it less trouble than filtering and dewatering, plus motor conversion?

I am aware that this is an area of great debate amongst you all, worldwide.
Debate, then.
I have some big choices to make, and the more you all talk, the more I can listen, and learn.

Practical explanations, nuts and bolts sorts of things, I feel, will guide me on with more confidence in success. Of course, the science is what it's really all about, but I'm most interested at the myriad of ways in which that science has been practically applied (probably each of you has your own little tricks).

To BIO, or not to Bio. That is the question!

(I'm off to scoop up more GLOB!)

[gwalker Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gwalker]

Re: Can anyone tell me what this glop is good for?

What exactly is tallow, practically speaking?

My understanding of tallow is animal fat. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

I've never "titrated" anything in my life (at least not intentionally).
I will go about trying to figure out what this means. Any info, advice, instruction, and/or "links" will be greatly appreciated.

Titration is no big deal and only takes a minute or so once you have made the initial solution, which is easily made.
The purpose of it is to find out how much 'catalyst (Lyre/KOH etc) must be added to each batch of collected vegetable oil to process it.
ie Titration tests the quality of the waste vegetable oil and allows you to easily calculate the amount of catalyst to add to the waste vegetable oil.
eg.You have 1 litre of oil that you want to make into biodiesel.
Assuming your catalyst is KOH (Potassium Hydroxide), you will need 200ml of Methonal and a 7.5gms of KOH plus a small extra amount of KOH determined by the quality of the oil you have collected. If it is good oil you might need an extra gram of KOH but if it is bad oil (cooked to hell) you might need an extra 5 grams.

If your fish and chip supplier changes his oil on a Monday and again on a Thursday, the Monday oil, having 4 days of cooking would be worse than the Thursday oil which has only had three days of cooking. If you pick it up the oil every fortnight and it all was dumped into a large waste container, it will average out the same, but very different from the restaurant's oil next door that used a better quality of oil to start with and changes it every two days.)

Hope this helps.
George

[Biofuelsimon Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Biofuelsimon]

Re: Can anyone tell me what this glop is good for?

You have bought something my grandparents called dripping, and they used to spread it on chunks of bread as an alternative to butter. Beef dripping is definitely the tastiest (on a scale of 1 to 10 it rates a poor 2) of a bad bunch, so I wouldn't recommend you try that with the dodgy stuff you've bought. You'll have to try reacting it.

[Mr Ute Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mr Ute]

Re: Can anyone tell me what this glop is good for?

Most of the oil I collect coming into this time of year has similar properties.
I just heat the oil to about 30'C to prefilter then add to the WVO tank in the ute. Everything in my system is heated - tank, lines & filter, and have not experienced a blocked filter due to the HMP oils.

[virg Biofuels Forum Newbie Find all posts View Profile Close virg]

Re: Can anyone tell me what this glop is good for?

Just checking in. Have been doing so frequently. I'm sure you (yes, you!) also have something to add...

As an aside...
Do any of you use ethanol rather than methanol?
Over here we have a fuel product called E-85 (85% ethanol/15% unleaded petrol), sells for about $2.70/gallon. Would this work in place of pure ethanol?

Also, what is "HMP oils"?

[TroyH Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close TroyH]

Re: Can anyone tell me what this glop is good for?

I am presently using ethanol, but I'm using neat oil (fresh from a bottle) at the moment for testing, and will be using fresh pressed oil for production. I know that testing has shown that small amounts of petrol (around 2%) do not pose any problems (this is known as fuel grade ethanol) and it is sufficiently dry, however I'm not sure about 15% petrol. I dont imagine it would cause any problems with the reaction, although I cant be sure (detergents and things added to petrol may post a problem), however remember that it will be present in your biodiesel at the end of the process.

[Tom Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom]

Re: Can anyone tell me what this glop is good for?

Did you get it from KFC , could be palm oil. If so it works as bio or wvo but more hassel than sunflower, cottonseed or canola. Maybe look elsewhere