WVO Drying Filtering System

To dry and filter my Waste vegetable oil, I built this " processor" out of a 200L Drum which I removed the bottom from and used the original Bung fittings on the bottom to connect the pump and a drain valve.

The oil is simply recirculated with a 500W Centrifugal Pump. It is a large impeller type, NOT the QB/ turbo Chinese type most people use.
Some valves on the pump allow me to draw oil from my upflow settling tank to initially fill the drum and then to put it into drying/ filtering mode.
The system works by squirting a jet of oil into the tank which pushes a lot of air through it and removes the water by evaporation. The oil is warmed up from the heat that comnes through the pump. In cold weather I have a 500W halogen outdoor type flood light underneath the tank which provides a surprising amount of heat by eliminates and danger or negative effects of having an element directly in the oil itself.

The Filter bag is clamped to a PVC pipe 150MM end cap which I bored a hole in and fitted a joiner through and secured with a couple of back nuts. Flow is regulated with the gate valve so excess pressure doesn't blow the bag off. When the bag is full of dirt, it will blow off the fitting signaling it is time to replace it. I rang the manufacturer of these bags and they said they were good for 10PSI without losing their filtration rating which is much higher than this pump is capable of producing.

I have a timer on the pump which allows me to set it going and leave it which means minimum hands on time. I set the timer to 90 Minutes which is more than sufficient to dry 150L of oil. A fan heater is mounted on the piece of the bottom of the drum I originally cut out and supplies fresh, dry air to the tank. The heater element in this unit had failed so the fan only blows ambient temp air, not heated. The fan is a CRITICAL part or the system. I have forgot to switch it on and come back 3 hours later to find the oil as wet as when I left it. I have another fan which blows air from the outside into the are a have the processor in to make sure the moisture laden air is removed. The drying seems to work as well in good weather as what it does when it is raining outside.

I am going to try adding some black pipe on the roof above the processor for some solar heat in summer and am also constructing a small WVO/ Wood fired " Boiler" to heat the oil when the sun isn't shining.

I have found raising the temp of the oil even a little above ambient aid in the drying process quite a bit. ATM The only heat comes from the pump itself transferring it to the oil.

Once the pump has stopped, I close off the squirter and filter bag and open the valve to divert the oil through the 1 Micron water filter. The oil goes from there to a hose with a filler gun the same as used at service stations which allows me to fill the 24L drums I use for storing the finished, ready to go oil.

They system was very cheap and easy to set up and works very well.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• WVO
• SVO
• Vegetable
• Oil
• Filtering
• drying
• processing
• Mercedes
• conversion

[glumpy10]

To go to boiling point is both unessacary and too dangerous for this type of ad hock setup. Any temp above ambient is fine but I never go above about 50oC.

At this temp I can dry the oil in 30 min. I have since added a WVO powered burner with heat exchanger which heats the oil quite rapidly and allows the shorter processing time.

The pump I use has a fan and is aircooled like most I have seen and does not seem to be effected by these fluid temps.

[TheBangBang04]

What temp do you normally try to meet to dry the oil? 212 degrees makes since to me that should boil it water right out real fast, but pumps are cooled by the liquid they take a suction on so will this destroy your pump?

[uploadJ]

Thanks for the vid