I just finished talking to my supplier of WVO, and got the label off of his VO container. Turns out its non-hydrogenated! Its called Hi Stability Canola Oil. Non Hydrogenated, Low in saturated fat, and trans fat-free.

My limited knowledge would say this should be good oil..
He uses it for fries/chicken burgers/chicken fingers...no fish.
So my 'margarine like' wvo @ 50deg must have different issues. Is it fat i'm dealing with? If so, is it just a matter of playing the waiting game and letting it settle to the bottom?

thanks again!

Yep, it's fat.

Could it be partially hydrogenated?

nope. i ripped the label right off his supply of fresh oil and took it with me. It says: Hi Stability Canola Oil. Non Hydrogenated, Low in saturated fat, and trans fat-free. I can even list the entire nutritonal contact section if that helps

so what's the best way of dealing with my fat-laden oil?

Animal fats burn too right? Couldn't he also warm filter and run it all (provided the system is hot enough)?

With enough heat one should be able to run straight lard, that is a bit extreme but possible. Electric heat to get oil flowing in injector lines and filters should work until the coolant warms up, or at least down here it should work. Colder climates would need more extreme heating and insulation I imagine. My question is does animal fat have more BTU"s than Veg oil given equal quantities, since its plant material in highly concentrated form?

It may also be the result of "winterization", which seems to be more popular now. The process holds the oil at a critical cool temperature, causing the high melting point fats to condense and settle to the bottom, leaving clear liquid on top. The top liquid is what you get in salad oil that will be refrigerated. The bottom layers are "naturally" semi-solid unhydrogenated fats. Those are the ones finding more frequent use as fryer grease substitute.
Cheers,
JohnO

quote:

... My question is does animal fat have more BTU"s than Veg oil given equal quantities, since its plant material in highly concentrated form?

Long ago there was a thread in hee about a guy who converted and drove a diesel motorhome across Australia. Very informative. Anyway... in that story he said the most power he got was out of Buffalo lard oil. I cant recall if this was fat that was mixed in with veg. fuel or if it was buffalo fat alone.

Find a new supplier...

thanks for all input,
as an aside.... thinking that full time heat is the answer (or a different supply), i thought i would see how an extra car battery would keep one of those beverage warming cups working overnight. and if it would, i could improvise, and hook up a two battery system.
so i filled it up with oil, and hooked it up to my extra car battery in the shop. checked it in a few hours, and it was off the meter on my simple thermometer that i have. it wasn't at water boiling temp, but it was good and hot. (outside temp was hovering around freezing) so i thought if it can keep 500ml's this hot, it should be able to keep my 30l tank in a nice liquid state. just need to find out if a regular battery will keep this up for extended period of time. so i left it on all night. but woke up @ 2AM and thought 'i wonder if this is safe? oh sure it is'. well i went out first thing this morning, and was please to find that after 14 hours, the battery had plenty of power to keep this up. but the container was empty, there was oil all over shop bench...oh ya, and that container was *hot*. the bench was hot. it got too hot and cracked and liquid leaked out.
so here's what i now know. these little cup warmers can kick out a lot of heat. make sure they are keeping more than 500ml's warm if integrating this into a tank warming system.
a car battery can keep this going all night and longer (recommend dual system so don't drain your starting battery)
if a nagging thought wakes you up in the middle of the night about the safety of your WVO experiment, don't turn over until you've checked into it