burning waste oil

[Don in Missouri]

I am wanting to get a dual fuel system like www.Greasel.com and start buring waste vegetable oil. My main concern is finding reliable sources of oil.



Then I got to thinking, I know tons of people who change their own motor oil, and it would be much more fun to visit them once a week than my local chinese restaurant.



Could used motor oil be filtered and burned straight in a heated dual tank system or does it need to be mixed in some ratio with regular Diesel fuel? What is the maximum oil to Diesel ratio?

 

[Forrest Nearing]

some guys run it, but in very small percentages...



Forrest

 

[CarlJensen]

Only thing I would worry about is the heavy metals present in all used motor oil. For this reason I don't think I would do it unless these metals were filtered out. Any petroleum experts out there? Can these impurities be filtered out easily?

 

[Headshot zod]

I'll be doing the tankless version from greasel. I just waiting to find the right set of tanks to do it with.

 

[Forrest Nearing]

I'm building my own veggie oil setup...



Forrest

 

[jwilliams3]

Another thread stated up to 5% used engine oil allowable in fuel for ISB is ok.

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

HMMmmmm ~ lessee now, we are exposed to a choice between carefully refined USED oil, most likely with LOTS of dandy anti-wear additives - and hopefully reasonably well filtered - at least well enough that we willingly used it in our engines to lubricate all those fine-tolerance engine components...



OR,



we can take some used french-fry oil that has fried fish, chicken strips and, of course, potatoes - and God only knows what ELSE! That oil at the point of disposal has LOTS of foreign material, meat and veggie byproducts, and maybe a few cockroaches for good measure. When disposed, it's dumped into whatever drum or similar container might be available or provided by a waste disposal outfit - and NO particular care or treatment during storage - and for that matter, with NO control or oversight, what OTHER waste material migh ALSO be casually dumped in there as well?



NOW, let me think, WHICH of these 2 prospective fuel sources do *I* want to select for use in my truck...

 

[barbwire]

HMMmmmm ~ lessee now, we are exposed to a choice between carefully refined USED oil, most likely with LOTS of dandy anti-wear additives - and hopefully reasonably well filtered - at least well enough that we willingly used it in our engines to lubricate all those fine-tolerance engine components...



OR,



we can take some used french-fry oil that has fried fish, chicken strips and, of course, potatoes - and God only knows what ELSE! That oil at the point of disposal has LOTS of foreign material, meat and veggie byproducts, and maybe a few cockroaches for good measure. When disposed, it's dumped into whatever drum or similar container might be available or provided by a waste disposal outfit - and NO particular care or treatment during storage - and for that matter, with NO control or oversight, what OTHER waste material migh ALSO be casually dumped in there as well?



NOW, let me think, WHICH of these 2 prospective fuel sources do *I* want to select for use in my truck...

Gary, do you think that if a person were to filter the used oil down to, oh say maybe, 1 micron, that that would be fine enough that you would be comfortable using it? Or would it have to be filtered down to sub micron before having no worries at all while burning it? Do you know how fine any particles in the diesel fuel is, that we get at the fuel stations? I was wondering where a guy might get a filter that would remove particles down to an acceptable size. even if it were a gravity flow system, and it took a week to filter a couple gallons. Still would be better than just "disposing" it. I certainly won't use it unless I knew that it would not harm my injection pump or injectors.

 

[Forrest Nearing]

Gary,



you don't just dump the old used oil in your truck! LOL! it's a fairly involved process to clean it and filter it down... I'm shooting for . 5 micron. with a large easily cleaned filter between the tank and engine.



Forrest

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

Gary,



you don't just dump the old used oil in your truck! LOL! it's a fairly involved process to clean it and filter it down... I'm shooting for . 5 micron. with a large easily cleaned filter between the tank and engine.



Forrest

AH!



NOW you guys are starting to get the point!



IF, filthy used VEGETABLE oil can be filtered and cleaned enough for use as an acceptable fuel for our trucks, is there a REMOTE possibility that some of that same filtering and treatment might ALSO make used engine oil equally usable?



PERSONALLY, *I* use a sub-micron bypass oil filter in my truck anyway - I wonder how much MORE "treatment" it's likely to need before dumping it in my fuel tank?

 

[dhill]

Many years ago a friend of mine used to work for a phone company. He changed the oil in threir service trucks, mostly 1/2 tons. What he did was to drain the oil, run it through a centrifuge (sp), looked like a cream seperator to me. He would then dump the oil back into the truck it came out of and added some kind of additive, change the filter, grease the truck and away it went again. I don't know if it really worked or not, but the oil LOOKED clean. It would be interesting if someone tried that and then sent a sample in to have it tested, just to see.



Dave

 

[JFaughn]

From what I'm reading in your post your mixing two things that are not being mix by anything I've been reading about biodiesel, they are not mixing crank case oil to make fuel , they are using vegtable oil either new or used deep fryer oil, if you wanted to reuse crankcase oil I would do it with synthetic becouse it dosen't brakedown as fast as dyno. oil.

 

[Gary - K7GLD]

"It would be interesting if someone tried that and then sent a sample in to have it tested, just to see. "



Actually, what *I* would like to see in view of some concerns about using various percentages of used motor oil as compared to recycling used veggie oil, is an analysis of contents and particle counts in typical homebrew veggie oil. I have a number of oil samples of dino oils from past use on my truck - so know what THOSE analysis look like - but NEVER have seen any for used veggie oil...

 

[Cooker]

if you wanted to reuse crankcase oil I would do it with synthetic becouse it dosen't brakedown as fast as dyno. oil.

I would mix synthetic engine oil with the fuel. It takes more heat to burn and therefore does not burn as well as conventional engine oil.

 

[SEmerson]

I have ran both used dino oil and used veggy oil in my 97. I have ran 100% of both. The motor oil runs ok but smokes and stinks to bad I wouldnt run it any more. You stop at a light and smoke just pours out the pipe. It also takes awhile to clean out once you run diesel agian. I filtered it with a tp unit. Now veggy oil is harder to clean. It also verys alot asto the filtering requrments. But on 100% veggy I make the same ets and it runs great. less smoke and it smells good to boot. That I filter with cleanable filters. A tp would not work well there. too much debre and too little flow.



I would love to run veggy all the time but it is too hard to find. Used motor oil I will only use in small amounts. Like when I change my oil I dump it right in the tank.



If anyone knows of a place to get used veggy in southern cal I would love some.

 

[hammersley]

This is teh Cummins System for burning it's own OIL....

http://www.cummins.com/eu/pages/en/products/construction/mseries.cfm



CENTINEL™ oil replenishment: electronically controlled system which extends oil change intervals up to 4,000 hours. The system monitors the duty cycle removing small amounts of oil as required, blending into the fuel stream to be burned during combustion. The continuous oil replacement process offers improved engine lubrication and protection.





CENTINEL is an optional feature for M11 E CELECT electronic engines. Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation

 

[cojhl2]

I ran 50% used crankcase oil mixed with #1 Diesel in a Chevette (Isuzu 4cyl) for many miles with no problems.



I had control of the oil (all my own) so I knew it was not contaminated. I used a regular fuel delivery filter both to filter the oil then again when filling the vehicle tank.



My friends warned me I would destroy the pump,, but after quite a few years nothing bad happened so far as I could tell.



During warmup the engine poofed a slight bit of blue smoke, more than I think it would have done on pure diesel.



Of course I am not running this mixture in my Dodge and I certainly would not put it in a Class 8. ,, and Im not so sure its even legal to do. BTW, the used oil (dropped from diesels) made the mixture so black I got away with offroad diesel.

 

[barbwire]

SEmerson, what is a tp unit? How fine does it filter? Thanx

 

[JBlock]

Many online turbibe system use on line filtering

Many years ago a friend of mine used to work for a phone company. He changed the oil in threir service trucks, mostly 1/2 tons. What he did was to drain the oil, run it through a centrifuge (sp), looked like a cream seperator to me. He would then dump the oil back into the truck it came out of and added some kind of additive, change the filter, grease the truck and away it went again. I don't know if it really worked or not, but the oil LOOKED clean. It would be interesting if someone tried that and then sent a sample in to have it tested, just to see.



Dave

Yes centrifuge is prettry standard practive for industrail turbine and jet engines,

 

[SEmerson]

SEmerson, what is a tp unit? How fine does it filter? Thanx

It is a Franz toilet paper filter. It is claimed to be sub micon. It is what gary is using also.