SVO upflow design with photos!

[Tim-HJ61 Donating Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tim-HJ61]

Re: SVO upflow design with photos!

Bumping this old but good thread.

Any updates from any of the original participants?
Or newcomers that have used the info in this thread?

Tim

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

Re: SVO upflow design with photos!

Hello here is my little upflow set up.

Since I live in a student share house I need something non permanent and small. I got some 60L blue plastic drums with sealing lids from gumtree (about $10 each I think). With these I have fitted some 15mm brass garden taps (not 1/2"). To fit these I drilled a 19mm hole with a spade bit into the plastic and using a 15mm backing nut on the tap inlet thread I threaded the tap into the blue plastic (cutting into it) and put the backing nut behind on tight. No sealant or gaskets and they don't leak. Note that the 15mm size of the tap doesn't apply to the threaded fittings (hence the 19mm hole).

Using some cheap 12mm garden hose and some cheap plastic garden fittings with the taps I can make sealed connections between the drums. I put the oil into the top drum which has a shopping bag filter in it. This drum has a tap on the bottom which is piped through the top of the second drum to the bottom. On the second drums there are two taps one about 2/3 up for the up-flowed clean oil outlet and one on the bottom to drain the drum out. I collect the oil in the small yellow oil container.

After this the oil from this is taken through a 5 micron bag filter and put into another blue drum for storage, this is done in the carport and not usually set up.

The oil I have been getting lately is from a Thai restaurant and is generally very clean. When putting the dirty oil in the top I also chuck in a splash of ULP.

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

Re: SVO upflow design with photos!

Hi Doofus,

I am a little confused, to me it looks like you are getting the water and stuff you don't want in your little drum on the ground, wouldn't you be better off putting the tap on the top off your elevated drum?
I would also put a 90mm stormwater pipe (cheap as chips) in the guts of your first drum. Leave a 25mm gap between the pipe and the bottom of the drum. So every time you add oil, you pour it in the pipe, it gets forced down to the bottom, pushes clean oil out of the top tap (because your drum has to be full) running in your little blue drum on the ground.

Just a thought. Happy oiling

Jens

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

Re: SVO upflow design with photos!

The top drum has a bag filter in it that goes about halfway down, which I pour the oil into and let it drip through. That drum is used only as a kind of big sealed funnel to collect the oil form the bag filter, so you are right all water does go into the second drum. All the settling happens in the one on the ground. And that garden hose going from the top drum to the drum on the ground does go all the way to the bottom... perhaps I should include more pics to make it a little clearer.

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

Re: SVO upflow design with photos!

Just a couple of observations - i used garden style taps early in the piece - you will find that the mechanism will gunk up in a short period of time - particularly if you leave a tap turned off for a while - you may find that the Vegoil will seal it down closed - i ended up replacing all of mine with ball valves for this reason.

Also be careful of the seals in the lids of these drums - they are usually a cheap rubber seal and the WVO softens and destroys them very quickly and they fail just when you least expect it

Craig

[pangit Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close pangit]

Re: My upflow design - [updated 15 Dec with photos!]

After 10 years of use, I'm getting rid of this setup FREE, see here: http://www.biofuelsforum.com/threads...mbing-and-pump

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

Re: SVO upflow design

For those who would like to make an up-flow settling system for their veggie oil, here is what I am using.
I have an insect screen in a cut off 60L drum, upside down with a 50mm* 19mm BSP reducing bush and 19mm BSP barbed elbow connecting via a valve and 19mm BSP barbed elbow, to the 50mm BSP reducing bush.
On one side of this bush I have the 19mm elbow and on the other a 19mm straight hose barb. I have a piece of 19mm polythene pipe which goes almost to the bottom of this drum. On the 19mm bung hole of this drum, I have another 19mm BSP barbed elbow.
A piece of clear vinyl hose joins this to the second drum, which has the same connections as the first one.
The outlet from the 19mm bung on this drum has another 19mm BSP barbed elbow which connects via vinyl tubing to another 19mm BSP barbed elbow to the storage tank from which I pump into my filter bags.
You can have as many settling drums as you like between the strainer and the storage tank.
This can be duplicated using IBCs and bulkhead fittings.

I have added an oil level indicator to the side of my storage tank by using a "blind" bulkhead fitting (which can be inserted from outside the drum and seals perfectly). I use clear vinyl tubing for the level indicator.

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

I see that all of the diagrams on this forum have disappeared over time (Photobucket started charging for image storage)
Here is my Up-flow settling system:
Up-flow settling.doc

After 15 years of use, the first drum in the up-flow settling system has failed.
Some water in oil had been accumulating in the bottom of this drum and had started to corrode the bottom of the drum. I saw evidence of water coming from the bottom of the drum and pumped out the top half of the contents. I sealed the bung holes and took the drum outside to inspect the bottom of it.
There was a slight weep of water from the centre of the bottom of the steel drum. I will take the oil sent to an appropriate disposal site. It has 15 years of accumulated sediment in it.