Question:
IVE JUST got my first 50 gals of wvo and did the only filtering i could at the time which was to run them thru a pair of blue jean pant legs. I got 15+ gallons before the stopped filtering the 150' wvo.
our first test was to heat it and run it thru a 28hp dajong chinese diesel engine which is used to power a 7.5kw generator as well as a pressure washer pump that produces 10 gpm @ 3300 psi.
we started the engine on diesel and let it warm up for about 3 minutes, than we applied the load of the pump and generator and let it run for another 5 minutes to get the engine up to 190' water temp.
at that point we switched the fuel from dino to heated wvo. The engine didnt miss a beat and ran great until we got air bubbles in the fuel system from a fuel line that came out of the tank we were using.

Now the question:
we are going to need to filter 500-800 gals per week for our use ( have 5 diesel trucks, 5 28hp diesel engines & 5 hot water heaters ) and want to be able to filter properly but speed up the process if i can.
ive been loking at the different filter ideas on ebay ( sock filters, canister filters )
and dont know what micron level to start with or which style is going to be the most cost effective considering that the filters are disposable.
one of the items that i was looking at was a 5 gal bucket that was sealed with a lid and had a bag filter inside so that you could pressure the oil thru the system rather than gravity filtering. ebay item # 5621125395
i dont want to waste my time and money on filters that peaple have found not to be effective or to slow.
any advice will be appreciated and we will be updating our results and pictures of the equipmet.

Choices:
apwdistributing

 

For such large volumes I'd recommend considering a centrifuge. They do what quiet settling does, only faster. Also consider water washing. The two methods will reduce your filter needs a lot.

I started building a batch centrifuge that you might try copying - a 5-gallon propane bottle mounted between two bearings, spun at about 2800 rpm, with an inlet pipe at the top and outlet pipe at the bottom. My intention was to pour WVO into the top, and expect roughly cleaned SVO out the bottom. Stop occasionally to allow accumulated junk to drain out the bottom. I expected it to process about 25 gallon batches.

johno:
i didnt quit understand your description, do you have a diagram or can you point to somthing similar to see moe of what you are describing?

Buy a commercial filter housing designed to be pressure fed. Feed this with a gear pump fitted with a relief valve to keep within the filter pressure specifications. Installing a coarse filter in the suction line of the gear pump is advisable.
Multiple filter housings in parallel, with ball valves to isolate each from the rest, will allow filter cleaning while filtering continues.
Pressure gauges after the pump (before the filters) will indicate if filters are clogging.

Sorry no photos. I'll try a description:
Imagine a 5-gallon propane bottle, standing upright. Imagine it has a pipe sticking out the top center (where the valve was), and another pipe sticking out the center bottom. Imagine each pipe in a bearing, so the bottle can spin. Imagine a motor and v-belt to spin the bottle
Pour dirty oil into the top. Heavy stuff (water, food chunks, maybe even tallow) "sink" to the walls of the spinning bottle. Light stuff (clean dry oil) "floats" to the center and runs out the bottom. When the layer of heavy stuff gets too thick, and the oil running out the bottom isn't clean enough, stop the spinning and drain the crud.
This is conceptual, hasn't been tested yet, and might not work. When I welded the bottom pipe in place, then spun it, I discovered it was off-center a little and wobbled too much. The manufacturing mark on the bottle turned out not to be centered. Oops.
A while ago some folks tried putting pop-bottles of freshly made biodiesel in a washing machine, set to "spin". It nicely centrifuged the glycerin out of the BD. This spinning propane bottle is built on the same concept. I'm sure it would work, but don't know how well.

TONY:
WHERE do i look for these commercial housings at a good price as well as the gear pump. are these items that might be available used from other industries?
your description sounds great, now i just need to find out if i can afford that level of product.
Ill let every know how its working.
thanks in advance.

JOHNO:
OK now i understand, like a "laboratoty" centrifuge.
one question, once the tank & upper and lower pipies are spinning and the undesirable product starts to come out how do you stop the flow or redirect it.

quote:

how do you stop the flow

Stop pouring more in. Change buckets, turn off the motor, drain, start up again, change buckets back, proceed with confidence...

quote:

Originally posted by apwdistributing:
TONY:
WHERE do i look for these commercial housings at a good price as well as the gear pump. are these items that might be available used from other industries?
your description sounds great, now i just need to find out if i can afford that level of product.
Ill let every know how its working.
thanks in advance.

Many industries use high pressure filters. Try to locate them at salvage outlets (scrap metal places too). When you find a suitable filter housing, find a filter place who will make a filter bag to suit the housing. You may need to have a support made for the bag filter to prevent stretching or splitting of the bag and subsequent lack of filtration.
Andrew, whoi drove his "Big Fat Merc Bus" around Oz, made up a filter housing and used a gear pump as I described.
I saw a gear pump on eBay here in Oz last week, but my bid was too low (I have since dumped the link to it -sorry)

EDIT: Found the link to the Gear Pump

Earlier Johno wrote:
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For such large volumes I'd recommend considering a centrifuge. They do what quiet settling does, only faster. Also consider water washing. The two methods will reduce your filter needs a lot.
__________________________________________________

Are you saying to pre-wash UCO/WVO by bubble washing like I would do for unwashed biodiesel?
Could you elaborate on this more.

Also, instead of a centrifuge has anyone on this forum heard of a centrifugal seperator? It has no moving parts and does the same spin the fluid to seperate out the heavy from the light stuff action as a centrifuge. I posted this question under the water block filter forum. I would go into more depth but I do not want to cross post.

I too am trying to find a way to clean up and process a lot of fuel (300gal/week). I went into depth on how I think a centrifugal seperator may help and gave links to venders who make them (so we can see what they look like) under the "WATER BLOCK FILTER" discussion thread.

Could someone give my idea a read through under the water block discussion and respond where you feel appropriate.

Thank you,
Anastasios

A series of filters is what might work ranging from big to small. Run the wvo through 3 paint straining bags, all at once ie., a bag inide the other 2 bags. This can be purchased from any paint store. Bags are used to strain paint from a 5 gallon paint buckets-extremely fine mesh-cheap and reuseable. 2nd: run the wvo through a series of paper coffee filters. This might work for you for the initial staining.

Hi all, I'm new to the forum and am also having filtration problems....need to filter 3000 gal/month.....in line filter sets of coars, med, fine screens plugged VERY quickly, as did the 5 gal bucket filter on ebay, as did a 55 gal drum with window screen pushed down and sealed around the top lip with inlet on top and outlet on bottom.....centrifuge may be the next option......expensive! any ideas? oil was 100 deg F when filtering. where can i find a used centrifuge?

johno - Re: your propane centrifuge.

how do you clean the crud (cake that doesn't drain out) off the walls after it accumulates?

how do you find the exact center of the bottom?

quote:

how do you clean the crud (cake that doesn't drain out) off the walls after it accumulates?

The cake wasn't solid, so it slowly oozed out. I'm sure there was some left inside. I haven't run it enough to have build-up problems, but there probably will be some in the future. I've considered tipping it sideways and dropping a handful of rocks inside, then rotating it slowly to grind out the build-up.

how do you find the exact center of the bottom?

I made a pair of V-blocks from scrap wood. Mount a pencil on a stick to draw a little circle on the end. The center of the circle is the center of the tank.

Hi,
For filtering WVO and used engine oil I use a detroit diesel fuel filter housing and one of three filters the 30 micron, 10 micron, or the 5 micron fiber glass filter. I get at least 500 gallons out of each. I measure their life span in years. These filters are common, sold by fram, or on ebay, or I get them from the National Guard. For pumping, I use Oberdorfer bronze gear pumps spun with 1/3 hp motors. They are incredibly durable and will work with an inverter.
JohnO, I have never been able to wash WVO without it becoming maynaise.
DF

DF: yeah, water washing oil is tricky. In fact, I avoid it, except to experiment with. I don't recommend bubble washing oil at all, because I, too have had it turn into mayonaise. I've had better success mist washing, but the spray head needs to be a long ways above the oil to avoid emulsifying it. The one way that seemed to work reliably, but inefficiently, was to boil the water under the bottom of the oil, then let it settle. This seems to saturate any floaty bits and they drop out into the water as things cool down. Decant the water, dry the oil, and it's ready to filter or make into biodiesel. Obviously not an efficient way to do it. The centrifuge does a better job with less energy, but I mostly use my "BirdWaterer" to prepare all my oil now (for SVO and BD use).

maybe your answer is to not filter it. If space for storage is not a problem, then have a "first in, first out" system. Store about 2 weeks worth of WVO. When you place a drum in one end of your storage, you remove a drum from the other end of your storage. Enough settling should occur in 2 weeks at room temperature that all but the bottom 10% would be useable as is. Since your not doing much work other than "warehouse management" maybe you could invest in a heated storage shed that is heated to say 100 F ...the settling would definitely take place. I use BD but my input wvo has been stored for about 2 weeks at 90 F. I do not filter for particles because the oil is very clear visibly except for the very bottom. I should also say my source for oil is pretty good so I am starting out ahead. I am new to this so maybe I'm all wet here ...it seems to be working for me. I do filter the BD to remove soaps and salts after using Graham's waterless method.