I have a barrel, and am planning to cut two holes in the top, install two 5 micron #1 filter bags 7"x16" into the holes. Then pour well settled Chinese used Pure Soy Oil into these bags at ambient temperature 60-80f this time of year. The oil will look like "Bass Ale" or "Sam Adams" and relatively clear. Can I expect it to flow. How long will it take?

Will it flow at 70 degrees f? Will it take a few hours / few days / never to get 5 gallons through a 5 micron bag? Can I expect this set-up to work with 5 micron bags. I ordered one 5 micron bag and one 5/10 double layer bag and plan to try it when they arrive. Probably will try the water cooler bottle trick ontop of the bags to auto feed them 5 gallons each if it works.

I understand I should build a basket to support the bags for optimum performance, and should dewater the oil at some point. Please just answere the question if you know.

Mark

I've had no trouble getting oil to gravity flow through 5 micron filter felt I get from Mcmaster. I've always supported my bag instead of letting it hang. I don't do a whole lot at one time so never kept track of flow rate. Just had a thought, if you suspended the bags in 55 drum with support, could you just upend the full water bottles in the sock and that way not have to stand around as they filtered? I could see being able to do 3 water bottles set up at one time with 3 supported sock filters. At the moment I have a 25 micron inside the 5 micron bag thats filtered for a while.

At room temperatures and if you have any hydrogenated oils present, the 5 micron bag will clog in just a few gallons. Heating to 100 degrees F really helps.

I prefer to do a stepped filtration. Rather than going right to the 5 micron, I go through 100, 50, 25, 10 and finally 5 micron. Yes, that's 5 filters but I find I can filter way more than 5 times the oil as compared to just one filter.

Todd

My setup is like the one you have planned except I have 4 holes on top of the drum.
If the oil is well settled, I can continuosly pour 5 cubies thru 4 filters before I have to wait. If you are patient you can run close to 100 gallons thru a filter.

What I do is line the filter w/ old clothes. The filtering is slower but the filters last 3X as long.

I have filtered oil down to 32F using this method so at 70F you should have no flow issues.

I put a 5 gallon water jug in the bungs and cut a 6" round hole in the bottoms. I suspend the sock filters in the water jug which empty into the 55 gallon drum. I have a wooden stake goin thru the handles of the jugs so that they wont tip. I can pour about 1 cubie thru 3 of these filters in one shot. The reason for the 5 gallon jugs is that I get almost 50+gallons into the barrel. If you cut the 6 inch holes in the top and then hang the filters you lose like 20 gallons of storage in the drum. I take a t-shirt filter which I suspend in the sock filter and when the gummys clog it I just take it out and throw it away. I am getting about 200gallons thru this setup. I am a blender and I just take the final product and add 10% kero to it and I go. I am in so FL so heat i do not use for now.
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I have gravity fed through 2 x 1 micron 4" filters. If the oil is well settled, it flows slowly but can usually run 20 gallons of oil through in 20-30 minutes.

quote:

Originally posted by Mark in NJ:
Can I expect it to flow. How long will it take?

Will it flow at 70 degrees f?

Mark

Hi Mark,
1. Yes.
2. I'm guessing an hour or less, from full to empty filter, depending on temp and how dirty the filter is, and how dirty the oil is. I have 4 bags, which I can get about a cubie in, then I go away and do another one later. When filters were new, it would flow pretty quickly.
3. Yes, but slower.
I do the same thing. Pour slowly and don't pour the crap oil through, as you know...

Cheers

I put layer four bags (25, 10, 5, 1) and let in hang thru a 7" hole in my drum. Fill 5 gal water bottle with oil and flip over and let it flow. filters at a decent rate as long as you settle for a few days first.

Thanks, guys!

I tried it last weekend with a combination 10 - 5 double layer bag from McMaster, an the flow rate was impressive. I see how you can go down to 2 micron and still have a decent flow rate. I am truly impressed: Still a little skeptical that any filtering actually took place, but I felt good enough to put it in my vehicle. I made about 5 gallons, and still flowing like there wasnt much resistance at all. P.S. my oil was well settled.

Currently my oil temperatures are around 10°C. If I have oil without any high melting point oil, I can pour it thru my single 5 micron, as fast as I can refill the bucket from the collection drum.
As soon as a bit of high melting point oil accumulates on the filter bag, the flow reduced rapidly.
At the present, my bag filter is half full of high MP oils and it has taken me 5 days to filter 25 litres of oil. When it is nearly full, I will remove the material liner, empty it into a container for a friend to make biodiesel from, wash it and put it back into use.
I have done this at least ten times since I last washed the filter bag.
I have a 1 micron filter bag which I treat in the same manner and which has a similar flow when high MP oils are present.

When I first thought about filter bags, the image in my mind of big messy bags of oil hanging from my cealing turned me off. But, when I realized that they weren't as big as I thought, and that you could hang them inside of a container like a barrel, bucket etc, I tried it, and couldn't be happier. This seems way better than what I was doing before (pumping through water filters). Faster, simpler, and just working out better for me.