WVO Upflow Design ok?

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

Hi all

I'm looking at an upflow design as it seems to be the easiest and uses little power for clean WVO.

This design is pretty much from the VegOilGuy on the tube.

Is there anything that I need to change or could be a concern in use?

I'm a noob at this so would like some feedback before I muck something up that I didn't foresee.

Will be using 200l blue plastic drums

Veg Oil Guy in his vid says to use clean oil in the settling tank initially, however as long as I let the first lot settle for 2 weeks it should be good to start adding more yes?

A 5 micron filter bag inside a 1micron filter bag will be in the filter tank for filter purposes.

The system will be raised off the ground

Will also have a ball valve inbetween the header tank and settling tank to slow the flow to a wee trickle to keep the settling tank from being stirred up.

Also the upflow setup will unfortunately be up to 15-20m away from the vehicle for filling up, are jerry cans here the best option or can a hose still be run that far ok, or is there a better method?

Ease of use and clean fuel is number one.

Thoughts?

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Re: WVO Upflow Design ok?


This is my up-flow settling system. The 3 drums are steel 200L drums. All in-tank piping is polythene. Inter-tank piping is food grade vinyl tubing with hose clamps. The oil is pumped to the header tank (2/3 of 60L drum with an insect mesh screen to catch the solid bits first). Not shown is a valve between the header tank and Settling Tank 1 which could be used to isolate the header tank. I have never used it .
This drains to the Settling Tank 1. The cleanest oil rises to the top where it is passed thru to the Settling Tank 2. The cleanest oil from the Settling Tank 2 overflows into the Storage Tank.
I have no filters in the settling system at all. My filtering system is separate as I also use the settled oil as fuel in my home heating system (without filtering).
I pump the stored oil into a home brew fermenter which has a 5 micron filter in it.
The filtered oil can be stored in the fermenter or allowed to drain into 20L HDPE chemical containers. I refuel the car by pouring these into the fuel tank (using a home made funnel).
I feel that the use of sequential filtering is a waste of money. IF you want to sequentially filter the oil which has been settled, then just get an old T shirt and sew it into a bag which will fit inside the filter bag, but long enough to fold over the top of the bag and down outside the filter bag for a couple of cm. This will catch any larger particles which may come thru the up-flow system and is free.
I usually add one of these inside my filter bag, as a prefilter to catch any high melting point oils (fats) which may block the filter bag. I can remove and replace the T shirt prefilter in a minute or less and then resume filtering.

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

Re: WVO Upflow Design ok?

Thanks for the reply Tony.

I was wondering what grade plastic piping to use, thanks for the food grade mention.

So sequential filtering was not what I wanted to do either, however many mention cleaning down to 1micron, not 5 as you do, then some only go to 10micron. Hence, why I was playing safe and putting a 5micron bag in a 1micron bag to get clean fuel to 1micron in the second tank, without pumping like you do. Do I need to go to 1micron, so many different opinions here...play safe?

Like the idea of the shirt filter and seen it mentioned many times, but didn't include in the design, will now How often do you find you need to change the shirt filter?

The oil would be in the settling tank for 3-4weeks on average which from what I've read would be a good amount of time to settle water and most particles yes? Hence why I was not going to use a second settling tank, but straight onto the filtering tank.

Thoughts?

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

Re: WVO Upflow Design ok?

Thanks for the reply Tony.

I was wondering what grade plastic piping to use, thanks for the food grade mention.

So sequential filtering was not what I wanted to do either, however many mention cleaning down to 1micron, not 5 as you do, then some only go to 10micron. Hence, why I was playing safe and putting a 5micron bag in a 1micron bag to get clean fuel to 1micron in the second tank, without pumping like you do. Do I need to go to 1micron, so many different opinions here...play safe?

Like the idea of the shirt filter and seen it mentioned many times, but didn't include in the design, will now How often do you find you need to change the shirt filter?

The oil would be in the settling tank for 3-4weeks on average which from what I've read would be a good amount of time to settle water and most particles yes? Hence why I was not going to use a second settling tank, but straight onto the filtering tank.

Thoughts?

Have you thought about using a VO centrifuge, it takes out everything including water, can fit just about anywhere, no filters and if your budget can afford it at the beginning, it is extremely cost effective. It has reduced my time filtering from many hours and days of labour, to putting drums on a winch, starting the centrifuge and leaving it for many hours to find I have over 100lt of very clean oil.

Unlike what they recommend, you don't have to heat the oil as it works much better unheated, especially in winter when you can take out so much more junk than in summer. Never use my summer filtered oil in winter, have found when putting summer oil through the centri, it gets out more junk. Yet in summer it seems clean and works well on vehicles bit not so in winter.

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

Re: WVO Upflow Design ok?

Have you thought about using a VO centrifuge,

Yes, the cost is beyond my current budget, doing it on the cheap

My design should work well and all I would have to do is put in another 20l of oil every couple of days into the header tank and in the third tank should be clean oil awaiting transfer to the vehicle. Simple and time efficient.

Just need some one to tell me if there are any problems with it

[Harvey Member Find all posts View Profile Close Harvey]

Re: WVO Upflow Design ok?

Dear earthling, your design is sound. Clear pipe and fittings all available in the irrigation section of bunnies.
Yes fuge would be nice, but the little ones don’t have much holding capacity for the crap, and the big ones are too expensive for most of us.
Happy oiling.

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Re: WVO Upflow Design ok?

The issue I see with your system is that your filter will need to be changed at some time. How are you going to access them inside a 200L HDPE drum?
Having the drums "open topped" is a problem as it allows dust and vermin, Insects, etc to enter the filtering system.
I sell 1 micron filter bags online. This allows people with Common rail or older diesels to use the filter with confidence. I use 1 micron filter bags, "5 micron" was a typo.
I see no problem using vegetable oil as fuel providing that it has been filtered at least as fine as the main fuel filter on their vehicle. I used to use 5 micron filters, prior to getting the 1 micron ones in. Older diesels may be fine with 10 micron filtering.

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

Re: WVO Upflow Design ok?

Thanks Harvey for the thumbs up and the bunno suggestion

And thanks Tony for the suggestions

Yes I was going to get the drums with removable lids, the ones with the clamp that goes around to secure the lid and cut a tight hole in the top for the inlet pipe.

Ideally I want a settling tank with a conical bottom, but that's going to have to wait for the time being

Goodo re: 1micron. What site do you sell your filters Tony, got a link?

Vehicle is a 92 Hilux ln106 2.8diesel, been 12 years now and cant see myself getting rid of it, so thought time to snaz her up a bit to WVO

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Re: WVO Upflow Design ok?

SNIP
Goodo re: 1micron. What site do you sell your filters Tony, got a link?

http://www.biofuelsforum.com/threads...2839#post62839

I am out of the 32" long bags at the moment.

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

Re: WVO Upflow Design ok?

Thanks Harvey for the thumbs up and the bunno suggestion

And thanks Tony for the suggestions

Yes I was going to get the drums with removable lids, the ones with the clamp that goes around to secure the lid and cut a tight hole in the top for the inlet pipe.

Ideally I want a settling tank with a conical bottom, but that's going to have to wait for the time being

Goodo re: 1micron. What site do you sell your filters Tony, got a link?

Vehicle is a 92 Hilux ln106 2.8diesel, been 12 years now and cant see myself getting rid of it, so thought time to snaz her up a bit to WVO

Yep the steel drums with clamped on lids are the go. I have coned bottoms on 1st and 3rd drums. Have the outlets on the side about 50mm down and have the inlets on the lid. Best to have the inlets sealed or raised so any water landing on top can't get in. The first drum should have the inlet in the middle so your funnel can sit on top. Good to have the funnel removable so you can clean it, clip tee shirt or similar over the top to catch rubbish, have a lid to keep out dust water cockroaches and mice. By the way I have filter bags in the last 2 drums of my 4 drum system. Yes they do block with fat occasionally like every couple of years so no big deal. I try to put only liquid oil through when it is cool then filter all the fatty stuff in the hottest part of summer. The first 3 drums have one solar panel each to heat them. When it is really hot fat goes all the way through no problem. If I can get the filtered fat into my vehicle tank I have no problem using it.

[Bueff Biofuel Enthusiast Find all posts View Profile Close Bueff]

Re: WVO Upflow Design ok?

Vehicle is a 92 Hilux ln106 2.8diesel, been 12 years now and cant see myself getting rid of it, so thought time to snaz her up a bit to WVO

Thats a good wvo engine you got there, I ran mine for about 150000 on WVO and bio with a two tank system. Make sure you purge the system properly when switching back to diesel and you'll be fine.

[Dr Mark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dr Mark]

Re: WVO Upflow Design ok?

The issue I see with your system is that your filter will need to be changed at some time. How are you going to access them inside a 200L HDPE drum?
Having the drums "open topped" is a problem as it allows dust and vermin, Insects, etc to enter the filtering system.
I sell 1 micron filter bags online. This allows people with Common rail or older diesels to use the filter with confidence. I use 1 micron filter bags, "5 micron" was a typo.
I see no problem using vegetable oil as fuel providing that it has been filtered at least as fine as the main fuel filter on their vehicle. I used to use 5 micron filters, prior to getting the 1 micron ones in. Older diesels may be fine with 10 micron filtering.

Had a good chat with the guy in the filter place in Welshpool this week. Seemed to know his stuff. I was buying replacement elements for my Delphi filter. He told me they were 10 µm which was interesting because I'm sure I have seen them specified at 5 µm somewhere. He said that 10 µm is fine for a non-common rail engine. Interestingly, I asked him what the standard Toyota filter was and he said that he didn't know. I'm sure I've seen it specified as 10 µm somewhere

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

Re: WVO Upflow Design ok?

Thanks for all the replies guys.

Have found a source of WVO and organising bits now

Will post up if anything goes awry.