Used cooking oil - Prep for use as fuel

[Tony From West Oz]

Long term settling of used cooking oil prior to filtering for use as diesel fuel for Indirect injection diesel engine
This is something I have been using for 10 years and have just now upgraded to Blue plastic chemical drums for the 2 settling drums.
I put this presentation together so that others could make their own systems for removing the majority of contaminants from their veggie oil.

Used cooking oil preparation for use as diesel fuel.
3 stages:

1. Strain big lumps out
2. Allow to settle to help remove small contaminants
3. Filter to ensure the oil is clean enough to use as diesel fuel.

Suitable for indirect injection diesels in a single tank configuration or any diesels when using a 2 tank system, starting and shutting down on Diesel fuel.
I am using a leaf strainer from a water tank. This normally sits in the top of the rainwater tank and the downpipe is positioned above the filter
In this application, I have cut the bottom off a 60 Litre steel drum and inverted the drum, into which this strainer sits.
A 50mm BSP x 19mm BSP adaptor connects to the drum opening (which is now at the bottom of the strainer vessel).

[Tony From West Oz]

The settling system uses 2, blue poly 200L chemical drums and plumbing / reticulation fittings to move oil from the strainer, to the bottom of the first drum.
The settled oil from that drum is sent to the bottom of the second blue 200L poly drum.
The well settled oil from the top of the second settling drum is then delivered to a 200L steel drum.
I pump the “well settled” oil, from the steel 200L drum, into a 10 micron bag filter.
The filtered oil is stored in 20 L cubies for storage and as Jerry cans for refueling.

Plumbing connections
The cut down 60L drum uses a polythene 50mm male x 19mm female, reducing bung with a 90° 19mm BSP x 19mm Barbed Polythene elbow.
This connects to a 19mm Barbed Valve. This valve connects via 19mm polythene pipe to a 19mm BSP x 19mm barbed angle.
The blue poly drum bungs are drilled to allow a 19mm bulkhead fitting to be inserted as a tight fit. I used the supplied washers in both sides of the bung and tightened (very tight).

[Tony From West Oz]

A 90° male 19mm BSP x 19m Barbed fitting is screwed into the top of the bulkhead fitting in the second bung of the first blue chemical drum using thread seal tape..

A piece of 19mm poly retic pipe is attached, for connection to the next drum.

ALL drum bungs need to be tightened securely. I used .an angle grinder disc spanner to tighten mine


NOTE: I added isolation valves to the flow path and air bleed valves to each outlet point, as an access point .(as seen in photos)

The second settling drum is set up the same as the first one, with the outlet bung being sent to the small bung (19mm BSP) of the clean oil steel 200L drum.

Settled oil is pumped into the filter bag containers, from where the filtered oil passes into 20Litre cubies.
2 filter bag containers are used to allow continuous filtering if needed.

Filtered oil is stored in cubies until needs to refuel our diesel vehicles.

[Grampiansmerc]

Great system, I use something similar

[penangke]

Hi Tony You just mention 10 micron bags
I am pretty sure i bought one micron bags from you which I use for final filtering
Jim

[Tony From West Oz]

Penangke,
Yes Jim, I sold felt filter bags (not doing them any more) but I chose the 10 micron mesh bags for this setup as I use T shirt material as a filter liner.
My intellectually handicapped daughter rips her tee shirt when upset. I have a large supply of torn T shirts to filter with. I use my wife's overlocker to sew the material into bags that fit inside the mesh filter.
When they clog up due to fats and/or contaminants. I remove the T shirt bag and replace it with another one.
Tony