I was wondering the ideal temp for dewatering (settleing) in the barrel? is there a limit(too hot)

Hi Hank,

There is no magit temp for dewatering.
The purpose of heating wvo do dewater it is to lower its' viscosity to the point it will no longer suspend microscopic droplets of water.

Unfortunately heating wvo to do this also induces convection currents that tend to mix the microdroplets unless it is done carefully.

It helps to have a well baffled and insulated dewatering tank..and to use as gentle and even a heat source as possible. The temp range tends to be from 80-100°F for wvo depending on its composition. You pretty much will have to try differnt tank configurations, temperatures, and settling times to determine what will work for you. If you don't feel like doing the R&D for this I have a well tested design for a prefilter/dewatering unit that is easy to put together.

If you do feel like designing your own unit it will probablyjust be trial and error to begin using the Hot Pan test to determine if the current config works better than the last.

What kind of volumes per week are you hoping to dewater?

quote:

What kind of volumes per week are you hoping to dewater?

Dana, I bought your plans for this, Iam currently using a 2200W heating element on 110V like your design(I know you used a 1500w)but I couldnt find a 1500W long enough. My oil is running at 150 deg. depending outside temp. Its drawing 5.6amps in a sense it should be producing 650 Watts I need a reostat to control it drop it down to around 3 amps that should get me where I want to be.

I was watching the temp this morning and It was flucuating from 149 to 168 it was going in cycles. I was wondering if Iam measuring the convection currents thats why the temp was moving up and down. Does that sound right? But I will work on trying to get the temp down.

I checked the oil last night(hot pan test) and found less bubbles this time but not enough gone.How long do I need to run this,assuming Iam going to get the oil down in temp.

quote:

What kind of volumes per week are you hoping to dewater

Sorry, I forgot to anwser the original question about 40 gal a week.

Ive found, that for basic de-watering before spray-drying that around 70-80 degrees C works well....
Heat oil in well lagged barrel and attain temp of say, 80 degrees...

Leave for around 12 hours with heat shut off...If the lagging is good, it wont cool too much 'overnight' and most of the water will drain out easily...

Try to minimise heat-loss as much as possible to reduce convection currents through the oil....

Follow up by re-circulating through a spray-nozzle, via pump with light fan air circulation through the spray....Best done in an enclosed 'drum' with air inlet and outlet...Cheap shower-fan works well, dont need huge draft, just a gentle airflow...
During this phase, again attain a temp of around 80 degrees C..Spray-dry like this for an hour and you should then have nearly perfectly dry oil...

Best to drain oil through a 'Stand-pipe' arrangement, as some water can 'stick' to the sides/bottom of the 'de-watering' drum. Best to use a separate drum for the 'spray-dryer' phase

Do the 'fry-um-up' test with a small amount in a pan...Check for bubbling/spitting...
Continue drying for another half hour if any water traces found in 'fry-um-up' test

YOu probably are gettign convection currents remixing some of the settled microdroplets.

I would suggest insulating the unit and adding a thermostat. Alternatively you can probably set up a regiment fo rprefiltering where you bring the wvo to around 120°F then shut off the heater and allow to settle for around 12 hours before drawing off prefiltered wvo for testing.

Email me if you need more specific guidance.

Dana:
Are you saying here to run the wvo through the sock filter then heat to 120 settle and after 12hrs run through goldenrod filter?

thanks

Welcome to the forum DBMAN,

No..Generally the gentler the WVO heating the better since settling can be nearly impossible if there are any strong convection currents created. And simply heating and settling won;t neccesarily settle water in wvo.

There are several "tricks" to preventing strong convection currents and creating a "progressive water gradient" in a settling unit to speed settling. These have been incorporated in my simple handpump prefilter unit design.

But yes...prefiltering to at least 10 microns is the first step in dewatering. And I generally find that temps of 80-100°F are sufficinet for dewatering vis settling.

We have found that it all depends on the oil. Most of the oil we get has been drained back inot the cubies and can be dewatered by heating and setling with a heat of 100F+ and a settling period of several hours with no heat. In a Frybrid still the oil heated to 130F will still be 120F after a night of settling, this is still too hot for the FX1000 and will melt the bag basket. The oil must be less than 110F to use this filter but i have yet to find an oil I can not dewater 80 gal at a go with this method.

CG

High Compression II - Could you please post some photos / drawings of your spray drying set up ? - Thanks