Jon, what's your setup again? What type of vac pump and don't you have a water trap/cooler in front of it?

Im kind of keen, with fugeing, on the idea of a two-tank siphon setup.

The oil starts out in one tank and is fuged into a second. When the second is full enough, a siphon overflow happens and dumps the oil back into the first.

The fuge doesnt need to stop and the mixing of clean and dirty oils is prevented to a great degree which should mean a quicker job and fewer passes.

My understanding is that the siphon is set up on the second tank this way - two tubes one within the other, both vertical. The top of the outer tube is sealed. The bottom of the inner tube drains back to the first tank ie inner tube is open at both ends. Small space between top of inner tube and sealed end of outer tube.

As oil builds up in the second tank the level in the space between the two rises and eventually it overflows into the inner tube. As it then flows down inside it sucks fresh oil into the outer tube - a siphon starts and only stops when the second tank is near empty. First tank refilled.

Cool, huh? Of course the second tank would have to higher than the first to allow draining action.

Thoughts anyone?

Paul

I dewater with my fuge setup and then the oil goes into storage, if your processor is sealed, if I were you, I wouldnt wait for the oil to cool down, just add your meth and process, any methanol boiling out is just condensing on the head of the vessel and dropping back into the process, your reaction should be faster and your heat system likely would not have to come on at all for the duration of the process.

Here's a link to the latest video clip I got edited.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUhgKFV5Ri4

I took some colored water, took the lid off the centrifuge, and spun the water at different RPM's and with different volumes of water in the bowl to show how centrifuges work.

I also show how to remove and reinstall the bowl on this particular model as well as show off the cool AC drive that this thing comes with. It lets me vary the RPM's from 150 clear up to 6,000.

I have a few more clips I need to edit & upload and will as time allows.

Anyway, enjoy the video!
-Graydon

Paulus, That sounds like a sweet setup! Is your main intention dewatering for this rig? Let us know how it goes...
Fabricator, how hot do get your oil before fuging? How long does it take you to dewater 300 gallons of oil?
Jon

It heats up while fuging to 170F, it takes around eight hours at present to get dry, that is with two 3gpm fuges, this winter we will be building a new fuge tank with a 20gpm capacity.

quote:

Originally posted by Graydon Blair:
I also show how to remove and reinstall the bowl on this particular model as well as show off the cool AC drive that this thing comes with. It lets me vary the RPM's from 150 clear up to 6,000.

I was watching that vid and thinking, in real world practice, you probably only need a high and low speed switch on that CF but I do realize the VFD is there in order to over spin the motor up to the 6K top end. Having a twirly Dial that we can amuse ourselves and make the motor go oddball 3856 RPM exactly is the reason we really want one of those things and cleaning our oil is the justification for handing over $1300 to be able to do it.

I was going to mention that a High low would be all that would be needed for practical purposes but then I looked at the vid again, heard the excitement in the presenters voice, watched the glee with which he twiddled that little speed dial and set precise but inconsequential RPM's and thought to myself that I couldn't possibly tear a persons heart out and cut the most excitement the guy has had for a while, right out from under him by saying that wasn't needed.

Necessity is only part of the reason we do things, it's the inexplicable pleasure we get from doing the Unnecessary that is really the icing on the cake and the reason we get out of bed each day.
Let us all enjoy the simple, strange pleasures we do and have fun being Men I say!

Graydon, You are having waay too much fun with that VFD mate!
I know what happened with it as well.
You went and got the Mrs. after you set it up and figured it out and Said "look at this Honey. I can make it go faster or slower just by turning this little knob to any speed I want. Go on, give me a number between 150 and 6000 and I'll make it spin that speed for you. Isn't that great!!!"

She looked somewhat blankly, said " oh, That's nice dear, don't forget put all this away and tidy up when your done. Dinner will be in an hour"
Of course you were a bit dissapointed she didn't appreciate this wonderful discovery as much as you did, but that thought only lasted 2 seconds and as soon as you went back to making the spinny thing go faster and slower again and mixing up more of the kids Cool Aid to play with in it, you were enjoying yourself far too much to worry and kept on having a great time till she got annoyed 90 min later at having called you 4 times already and came out to drag you out of the shed for dinner.
Women!

Don't worry mate, we have all been there and done that a few times. There are some things they just don't understand!

I was looking at you tube the other night and saw a vid that showed the same as what yours did inadvertently. He was using the same style CF as yours and also with colored water, demonstrated that some liquid is splashed out straight away as it enters the bowl with virtually no residence time in the CF.

While I was of the understanding that these style units were one pass as it were, a second pass may remove debris which wasn't cleaned out the first time and yield a better result.
If a person were looking to make the CF their sole cleaning tool, they may want to do a first run cold to get out the fats and then a second hot pass to remove the water.
They may also end up with a cleaner product in the end although the spill over is probably minimal.

Great Vid, your high res camera works great and the editing and narration makes for a Vid you can enjoy rather than having to suffer. For men interested in grease and used oil, there are some good movie makers amongst us!

quote:

Originally posted by fabricator:
It heats up while fuging to 170F, it takes around eight hours at present to get dry, that is with two 3gpm fuges, this winter we will be building a new fuge tank with a 20gpm capacity.

8 hours? For how much oil? A tote?

My evaporation/ filtering processor does 150L ( 40 gal) in 90 min or under and the total electrical input is 300W for the pump. If I warm the oil up a bit, I can dry it much faster. I filter at the same time and am quite satisfied with the end result I'm getting which is why a can't justify a Fuge.

quote:

Originally posted by DCS:

quote:

Originally posted by fabricator:
It heats up while fuging to 170F, it takes around eight hours at present to get dry, that is with two 3gpm fuges, this winter we will be building a new fuge tank with a 20gpm capacity.

8 hours? For how much oil? A tote?

My evaporation/ filtering processor does 150L ( 40 gal) in 90 min or under and the total electrical input is 300W for the pump. If I warm the oil up a bit, I can dry it much faster. I filter at the same time and am quite satisfied with the end result I'm getting which is why a can't justify a Fuge.

250 gallons at 6gpm, in a couple months it will be 20gpm, thus lowering my fuge/dry time, the volume will go up by almost 100 gallons also.

quote:

I was looking at you tube the other night and saw a vid that showed the same as what yours did inadvertently. He was using the same style CF as yours and also with colored water, demonstrated that some liquid is splashed out straight away as it enters the bowl with virtually no residence time in the CF

Thanks for watching.

I thought it might have been one of yours FF but I couldn't find it when I was writing the reply to check.
Your videos are great to watch and very informative. You certainly have an awesome setup and I think you are definitely an expert.

I was just watching some other Videos on YT ( I love that, I have learnt so much there and seen so many things I never even knew existed!) on olive oil pressing. A couple of them seem to run the oil through industrial type Cf's at the end of the process which seems to separate the water from the oil.
I understand these are not "Home use" type machines but I wonder what it takes to do that and if the principal could be incorporated into the small CF's without making them completely unaffordable?

DCS,
You have no idea how "right on the money" you were....
She was totally bored with it. And the "time for dinner" thing was dead on.

....and I made an absolute mess of the garage that day....
Add to that the stench of the oil (that Micky-D's oil STUNK to high heaven) and you can guess how many points I won that day.

I took the 100 micron strainer in the house to the sink to clean it out and it stunk up the whole kitchen. "Graydon, what stinks in here?" "I dunno..." (I couldn't smell it, after being around it for a while I was "used to the smell" and didn't think anything of it).

"Eww...it's this filter! Get it cleaned or get it out of here!"

Ok....so I went & used some soap & cleaned it up...it still smelled like old oil though for a while in there.

But the Fuge was sweet to play with!

I actually cut a TON of video out of it....I had a ton of fun playing with it.

And as they say....
"The only difference between men & boys is the price of their toys."

I love that new toy! And the beeping it makes is just cool!

But yep, a high/low switch would make a lot of sense.
-Graydon

quote:

Originally posted by Graydon Blair:
DCS,
You have no idea how "right on the money" you were....
She was totally bored with it. And the "time for dinner" thing was dead on.

Its a universal thing we men share.

I picked up some waterlogged Diesel a few months ago and ran it through my filter and drying processor to clean it up. It left behind a lot of powdery residue which I had to pull the processor apart to clean out.

Talk about stink!
Give me rank veg any day. At least you can get that stuff off your skin. The stink of Diesel just about requires the removal of your epidermis in order to get rid of the Dino pong. Then of course you have a shower and throw the dirty clothes in the laundry basket and they stink up the house and all the rest of the clothes they were sitting with and the Mrs really goes to town.
Never had that with Veg saturated clothes. Maybe she has got used to the smell of the veg as well?

I still have 400L of Dino settling and if pumping off the top isn't enough to clean it up, then it's going to be used as is for Burner fuel!

I feel for ya...
The inside of my old Isuzu pickup had the distinctive smell of used veggie oil....

The absolute worst though is gear oil.
There isn't ANYTHING that'll pull that smell out.
Once it gets in your clothes it'll permeate them until the end of time.

quote:

Originally posted by fabricator:
It heats up while fuging to 170F, it takes around eight hours at present to get dry, that is with two 3gpm fuges, this winter we will be building a new fuge tank with a 20gpm capacity.

Well that about makes up my mind.
I am going to keep it simple and stick to vacuum dewatering...
Jon

quote:

Originally posted by fabricator:
250 gallons at 6gpm, in a couple months it will be 20gpm, thus lowering my fuge/dry time, the volume will go up by almost 100 gallons also.

Do you have pictures/video of your set up? Your through capacity is what interests me most.

quote:

Originally posted by fuelfarmer:

quote:

I was looking at you tube the other night and saw a vid that showed the same as what yours did inadvertently. He was using the same style CF as yours and also with colored water, demonstrated that some liquid is splashed out straight away as it enters the bowl with virtually no residence time in the CF

Thanks for watching.

Are their links available? There are so many videos online that are just terrible. Its nice to get leads on helpful vids.

FuelFarmer, where in Va are you?

My through capacity will be that much because I will be using two spinner 960s and the 14 inch diameter, 24 inch tall spinner (forgot the number).

quote:

Originally posted by fabricator:
My through capacity will be that much because I will be using two spinner 960s and the 14 inch diameter, 24 inch tall spinner (forgot the number).

So that is 3 Cf's all together?

How much power will you be using to drive the pump and for heating all up?

Yep, the big one is around 15-16 gpm, the two 960s are around 4-5 gpm, as far as power used I have no idea.

Links to youtube clips.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X7Lr-gdxZY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...0lcE&feature=related

Video #3....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cvQazPlzKU

See? Told ya I shot a lot of video...