quote:

Originally posted by Burbarian:
Hello Coach,
Excellent point, and I agree 100%. Will set up another pair of tests with just the raw oil sitting for a week and test the top layer, then decant it into an upflow bucket and test that after another week. ...

WVO life pending still grrrr
Coach George
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Originally Posted by anvil of Pirate4x4.com
your very informative reply has been noted. I think this is the same type of logic you used to draw your conclusion.

Place banana in your ear.
Observe that there is no alligators around.
Conclude bananas placed in ears keep aligators away.

quote:

Karl Fisher shows water as high as 2700ppm in oil used for cook chicken and very high FFA, dimers and trimmers. Also water as high as 900ppm in soy oils used to cook frozen foods like fires and chicken fingers from a bar. These results are repeatable. cgoodwin
If an oil has a significant amount of FFAs (many of which form Azerotropes with water) then no amount of settling, centrifuging or heating will remove it at atmospheric pressure. This is also my theory of why the more heavily used oils seem to have a higher water content even though they have been subjected to more extended heat levels. Even if new oil is exposed to O2 it begins to decompose into FFAs and other polymers which are also probably highly hygroscopic. Chris also touched on some of the other gunk which comes out of the food in the fryer(which include glycerols. sorbitols, crazy shaped trans fats which like water very much, etc..). The good news is that the water which is bound to these chemicals is "usually" poorly reactive with fuel system components like IPs and injectors. nursecosmo

quote:

Originally posted by Burbarian:
Hello Coach,
Excellent point, and I agree 100%. Will set up another pair of tests with just the raw oil sitting for a week and test the top layer, then decant it into an upflow bucket and test that after another week.
Baking soda and water - an acid neutralization and FAA-to-soap wash? I'll give that a try as well.
Thanks for the suggestion.

quote:

Originally posted by john galt:
Not surprising, since hydrogenated oil and animal fats attract and retain moisture. Remove the hydrogenated oil and animal fats and most of the water goes with it.

quote:

Originally posted by 1991TroopyHZJ75:
Attached is a photo my upflow settling system.
... Since I took the photo Ive added a breather with a shut off valve on the first tank, so when I drain the unwanted oil from the bottom of tank one it can draw air in from the breather as these are sealed units.

WVO life pending still grrrr
Coach George
----------------------------------------
Originally Posted by anvil of Pirate4x4.com
your very informative reply has been noted. I think this is the same type of logic you used to draw your conclusion.

Place banana in your ear.
Observe that there is no alligators around.
Conclude bananas placed in ears keep aligators away.

quote:

I have a trouble free settling system that gets me more than 1000 gallons thru a 2 micron Racor filter element.

My settling tank is very evenly heated and well insulated. I introduce the oil into the bottom of the tank slowly to not stir up the oil already in the tank. The outlet is about 6" from the TOP of the tank so I am only draining the top 10% of the oil in the tank. The outlet gravity flows thru the 2 micron filter into my storage tank. If I put 5 gallons into the tank a day, it takes over a week for that oil to work it's way up to the outlet. by that time almost all of the water and solids have settled out. I get over 1000 gallons thru the filtering station filter and I have NEVER had to replace an in the car WVO filter even after 70,000 miles on WVO.

I use a settling tank that has a little more capacity than the amount of oil I use in a week. With PHO Soy, I ran a little over 120F in the settling tank and about 80 in the storage tank (I am intentionally keeping the animal fat clear). With Canola, I am running about 100F.

No problems with polymerization.

I can heat it either with hot water from my boiler or with electricity. The tank is wrapped with PEX pipe with a spacing of about 3" turn to turn and is also wrapped with ice melt cable between the PEX turns.

The water loop is fed from a tempering valve so a constant water temperature is circulated around the settling tank. The circulating pump that I am using only draws 5 watts.

The electric heat is controlled by a proportional controller rather than an on/off controller. Once up to temperature, it takes less than 60 watts to maintain temperature. With good enough insulation a 60 to 80 foot ice melt cable will get you over 200F. That temperature will probably damage the cable. I have had no problems up to 150F.

Normally I just use the circulating hot water heat.

I also heat the incoming waste oil with an inline thermostatically controlled electric heater (like a 120V version of a veggietherm) to the same temperature as the tank so there is no temperature differential between the incoming oil and the oil already in the tank.

My in home filtering has been working so well that I used a stock fuel filter for WVO on my last WVO conversion ('85 MB 300D)


Ron
'85 300D
Since '81 former WVO conversions:
'83 240D
'80 Audi 4000D
'83 Isuzu Pup
'86 Golf
'76 Honda Civic with Kubota engine
Several generators
Kubota Tractor

quote:

Originally posted by john galt:
If the oil you're using won't dry with cold upflow settling then use Ron's heated upflow system.