I don't see many of the "here's my system" posts, so don't know if it's appropriate/helpful or not. Figured I'd post to see if it was helpful to anyone, or if anyone had feedback.

So after several months of reviewing things online and checking out various setups, I’ve finally started putting together my processor. A couple months ago, my father volunteered to do the welding for my system (assuming I would do the research and then he would build a second system for himself). That being the case, we decided on doing a ~90 gal stainless steel cone bottom tank. While it was his first time doing stainless, he has done other welding for years and has done a good job. He has a MIG, but not a TIG, so some of the welds don't look quite as 'pretty' as they could have with other equipment or more experience in stainless. Looks don't count, though...


The entire setup will be:

• 55 gal settling/dewatering drum with a centrifuge
  
• 90 gal processor designed from the GL Push-Pull plans, with external in-line heater. Using a 4500 watt 19 inch heater (220).
  
• Pump *? (still waiting to see – supposed to be equiv to Murphy’s Pumps, but I bought this from David at Biodiesel Systems and haven’t received it yet)
  
• 16 gal drywash lead column for PD206 (built this one ourselves)
  
• 9 gal drywash lag column for either PD206, Amberlite, or Macroporous (still waiting on this column also, bought it from David at Biodiesel Systems at the same time as the pump)
  
• Storage container (I haven't decided on this yet, but will probably use a 55 gal drum for immediate needs until I have a 330 gal tote or something)
  

Anyway, in building the systems, I wanted to share a few of the pictures I’ve taken of the steps along the way. I don’t know if any of them will help anyone out who is trying to figure out how to engineer certain things, but figured that some of our successes or failures may be benificial:
(on a side note, all pictures and more can be found at My Biodiesel Picture Archive

First, the beginnings of the processor (prior to putting the lid or plumbing on):

Dad working on stand for tank:

Processor stand – I know several people have asked how to build stands for cone-bottom tanks. I think this stand should support the weight (just a guess though):

and


Leak Test (it was leaking):


Then, we started working on the Drywash column. For this, we have an 8 inch black steel pipe that we are putting bulk-head fittings on top, bottom, and low-side (for clean-out). Within the pipe, we are welding plates at the top and bottom that allow for the 70# screen to contain the resin. Basically, we have two “support disks” that hold the resin filter like this:
Disk1 – Support Mesh – 70# filter – 70# filter @45 degree angle – Support Mesh – Disk2
Disk 1 is welded inside the tank, and bolts run through it, connecting to Disk 2 and sandwiching everything else between them for support.

The two disks, after being cut out and ground-out:


Connecting the two disks with the bolts:


Sandwiching the material between the two disks:


Which leaves a thin edge between the two that needs to be cut/ground off (think of the ham that hangs outside the bread in a ham sandwich), to allow for welding to the tank:


We cut and ground out the clean-out bulk-head fitting to fit on the pipe:


And then we started engineering the legs for the column. Since it was 6 ft tall + 1 ft underneath it, we wanted a wider base than straight legs would provide. We angled each of the legs out by about 8 inches, to give ~25 inch base:


And then we started the plumbing for the processor (taken with a wide-angle, so they aren’t as nice):


Tonight, we should be doing the following (I’ll post pictures later):
Drywash column:
Weld in the filters
Weld on the bulk-head fittings
Put on the legs
Put on casters
Paint (probably not tonight)

Processor:
Finish plumbing with the exception of the pump
Finish ports for lid
Weld on lid
Attach ‘foam trap’ to lid
Attach casters to bottom

Anyway, just kind of excited about how its going. My wife is getting ready for a trip from Kentucky to Oklahoma City/Dallas, and wanted to have the BioDiesel done by then to cut costs…I’m working hard to finish it, but I don’t think I’ll have it done and processed by the weekend (she wants to leave Monday). I should be close, but don't know if I'll be completely done.

On a related note, if someone in the area wants to sell some bio, please let me know.

Thanks,
-Scott

This message has been edited. Last edited by: handcuff,

Let me guess...In your day job you're a nuclear reactor designer?

It looks great!

How do you like welding to all that cadium plated tubing? Where did you get that crazy stuff at?

If it doesnt work out as a biodiesel processor, you'll have one heck of a coffee maker!

All jokes aside, it looks like you're going to have one beefy and long lasting biodiesel processor. Nice job!

You should go to www.biodieselpictures.com and post these photos. The site is hosted by Graydon Blair of UtahBiodieselSupply.com and is where most folks post pictures at. Then come back here and give us a link.

Thanks, Murphy...By the way, your plans have been helpful in determining the plumbing and will be helpful in the wiring, so I appreciate that.

I knew there was a place for the BioDiesel pictures from the forum, but didn't know how to get there to setup/post. I keep all my family pictures at http://handcuff.smugmug.com and these seemed to fit OK with them also (plus, dad wanted some pictures of how he was doing things that he could refer back to once he got back to Oklahoma). I'll post my pics over with Graydon also, in the event that's more convenient for people.

Thanks,
-Scott

It'd be a LOT more convenient for those of us with dial-up. I rarely get to look at pictures, and can't open threads that have big imbedded pictures. Linking is better, and let's me wait until I'm near a highwpeed wireless link.

OK, waiting for Graydon to get my account for images set up properly. Until that time, I figured I'd post our activities for the evening:

GOt most of the plumbing complete (can'd do any more until David from Biodiesel Systems here in Louisville gets me my pump).

Almost finished the lid for the reactor
ground down the heater

welded the gussetts into the legs for the drywash column

cut the plates for the processor castors (still need to do them for the column casters)

Tomorrow is the last day for my dad to be here, so we have to:
Finish the processor lid (put the 3 inch clean-out bulk-head on it)
weld the lid on
weld the filters inside the 8 inch pipe for the drywash column
weld on the 3 bulkhead fittings for the column
weld on the column legs
put on the casters

I'm guessing that will take pretty much the entire day.
He's tired and wants to get back home...I can't blame him...he's been here almost two weeks now.

Anyway, my next postings will likely have the remainder of the stuff done (with the exception of the missing pump and second drywash column from David -- I gotta get in touch with him and go pick them up soon).
-Scott

Very nice. Feels goos to get a big project going.

Dear diary,

So for the 4th of July this year, I decided to celebrate by making the largest rocket on the block:


=)

This will be the last group of pics I post until the thing is completely done. Yesterday, my father and I spent the evening completing the tanks together. We finished the processor (built the foam collection trap, put on the lid, and put on the casters for the stand), and then got the drywash column banged out.

Here are a few pics of the processor lid, foam trap, and it put together and welded:

Tank Lid - it has 1 x 1/2 inch opening for feeding reactants into (HCL for GL's Push/pull process), 2 x 3/4" ports for the foam collector cylinder, and a 3" bulk-head for getting into the processor if I ever need to:



Foam Trap container (a horizontal column with a screen in the middle - foam goes up into one side, pops against some stainless steel mesh, then drops back down into your processor) - it has to have an opening to allow you to change out the stainless steel mesh and a second hole to allow ventilation of Methanol out for recovery:



And here it is attached to the top of the processor:


The finished processor:



Drywash Column:
We started by putting the internal filter rings inside the tank and welding them in.


Then we welded on the bulkhead fittings for top, bottom, and clean-out.


And finally, we put on the legs. It's set up for casters also, although I don't have casters for it yet (it sucks to have to move this thing around the garage).


It ends up being a 6 foot column, 8 inches in diameter. 2 inches on the top and bottom are 'unused' - thats the space between the mesh and the bulkhead fittings. It stands 14 inches above the floor (not including the casters), so that puts it up by about 7ft3 inches or so (after bulkhead plates), and it should hold aprox 16 gallons.

Today, I spent a little time painting it to see how it would look. I painted it green, since that's the whole point of this thing (cash and conservation). I left the bulkhead unpainted, as it will be covered anyway.



So anyway, I'm hoping to be up and running with the processor and the drywash system within the next couple of days.

Let me know if there's anything I should be focused on, or if anyone saw any obvious errors.

Thanks,
-Scott

That is great, looks complicating but if you have the plans I guess that solves a lot of problems.

One question though..

You mention your using the Plans on Murphy's site correct?

I used the plans on Murphy's site to get some really good ideas for construction, plumbing, and electrical. I purchased Murphy's plans when I first wanted to understand the non-appleseed processor better (and how to build one).

I built the tanks with the idea of following Murphy's fairly closely (with a drywash, however), and then ran across GL's Push/Pull processor. I liked the idea enough to change gears, and Murphy's plans were flexible enough to accomodate.

I think Murphys plans are very helpful, if you are new to the game as I was/am.

Hope that helps.
-Scott

(ok...one more shot, after painting both of them. I admit it. I love taking pictures...)

Oh Fabricator!!!!
You've got some competition!!!

Handcuff, that stuff looks awesome!!!!
Super sweet lookin' too! Nice, clean designs....

Man, between you & fabricator, we're going to see some incredibly sweet designs!

Lookin' nice!!!

-Graydon

So I noticed the Odyssey is for sale....
Is there a diesel family car in your near future?
-Graydon

Wow that looks great!

Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it, although I don't think our stuff quite competes with fabricator's - he is still one of my idols on here...his stuff is always very sharp and polished. My dad did the vast majority of the real work...I did some designs, and then did a lot of the knuckle-dragging, while he did all the welding.

We sold the Lexus that you see pictured, and are selling the Honda Oddessy (just put it up a couple days ago, so are waiting for a buyer that wants it).

We bought a 98 MB E300TD and a 2001 Ford Excursion, and will be a (bio)diesel only family once the minivan sells.

Thanks,
-Scott

On the 'snafu' side of the coin, I figured I'd share some of my pain with the group of things that didn't go exactly according to plan.

I figure all projects require a blood sacrifice before they work properly (anyone that works on cars will likely agree), so these types of things were expected...just thought that some people may like the humorous side of doing anything like this.

So, during the process to build this:
I fell, slamming my hand into a SawsAll (not running at the time) laying one of my fingers open.
I tried to catch a pipe that was falling off the cutting bench, managing to 'catch' the sharp end and slice anyother finger open.
I layed my hand on the tip of the welder about 10 seconds after it was being used, burning a nice thick line across my palm.
I put my hand on some metal to push myself up, and the metal had been welded on within the last minute or so, so that was another fun burn.
My dad thought I had gloves on, and handed me a heater pipe he had just finished welding on...I foolishly grabbed it before realizing that, contrary to my belief, I am not impervious to heat OR pain...the part ended up getting thrown pretty quickly, and a passing neighbor got a good laugh.
Almost the exact same thing happened with a part of the processor we were grinding on, rather than welding...
I had a nice metal sliver fall off my eyebrow just after taking off my safety goggles, to land inside the canthus of my eye and cause all sorts of fun.
And finally (this one warrants a story), I ended up tackling my dads trailer, scratching up my arm, ripping open my knee, smashing my hand, and almost breaking my jaw in the process.

The story is that we had backed the trailer up to my garage for security reasons...it was up almost touching the garage door, and the next morning when I was half asleep, I saw dad pulling his van in to hook up to it. I went to open the garage, and as the garage door started to open, the back of the trailer started to lift. I thought it was caught on the garage door, so I started getting a little anxious...the next second, I see it rolling forward (now, I can only see out of the first foot or two of the garage door, as it is still opening) and all I can think of is that the trailer caught on the door, got lifted up, and now is about to roll into my dads van and smash it up.
I sprinted through the construction zone/garage and ducked under the garage door only to trip on some black piping and fling myself head first into the back of the trailer. Right before I did a face-plant on the back of the trailer, I looked up enough to see that my dad had grabbed the toung of the trailer and was wheeling it towards the van (it had never caught on the garage door).

Of course, looking at it from my dad's perspective, all I can think is that his son is a crack-head: He wakes up early and goes outside, trying not to wake anyone up while he moves the trailer. As he grabs the trailer, the garage door opens up and then his grown son (who should know better) comes running out of the garage, yelling unintelligably, to smash his face into the trailer and then lay on the ground mumbling to himself...

Yep. That's the type of son we all want, right?

Oh Handcuff, I feel for ya! I've had those kind of days....

I bet your dad got a great laugh out of it though....

Here's hoping the fun w/ Bio goes well..
That Mercedes sounds sweet!
-Graydon

So I'm finishing my OneFiveFifty filter, as described by ObiOneCanola. I changed mine around a bit, and was planning on doing a 100 micron > 50mc > 25mc > 5mc > 1mc. Then after I bought the stuff to do it, I decided on filtering via centrifuge. I took off the last few filters, and am only doing 100 > 50 > 25.

For those of you who haven't seen this setup, ObiOne has a video of it, and mine works (from what I can tell) exactly the same way.

a 4 inch sock filter will sit right up on top of a 4 inch PVC pipe. So I have a clean-out, followed by a 4 inch coupler, followed by the 4 inch pipe. In the coupler gap, I have the 4 inch sock filter. The pipe goes down for a bout a foot, then there's another coupler, with the next smaller sized filter. I keep reducing until I get to my smallest filter, after which I put another clean-out so I can close the thing off to keep oil from dripping everywhere. Once oil is settled, it pours through this fairly quickly (5 gal in ~45 seconds). Trash oil with lots of junk takes a while longer.

Here are three pictures of it I promised I'd take to show my dad:

Picture of the tube broken in half, getting rid of the 5 and 1 micron filters)


and here's one of how the clean-out sits on, with the filter inside:


Hope this helps someone as they are trying to do this -- I saw ObiOne's video, but still had a few questions.
-Scott

Nice work, Handcuff!!

I have been reading all the threads and appreciate your contributions! Nice Processor!

So I guess you will not be distilling your glycerol and bio, avoiding the acid dose, and using the dry wash column instead. Seems to be a pleasant way to get around the complications that the push pull thread spells out.

A few questions:

Why filter down so small?

You have a foaming trap, but you will not be pushing and pulling?

Sorry, I am a little confused...

Thanks for all your work! Wish I could work closely with my Dad on a cool project!

Toph

Hey Handcuff,

Where did you get your sock filters?

Thanks,
RJ

Hey Tofir Mira,

Thaks for the kind words. It's nice to be able to work on a project with my dad, and especially when it turns out well like this one did.

I will be doing the push/pull and distilling down and then pushing the biodiesel through a centrifuge, then the resin columns - I want my fuel to be very clean and not have to worry about if it will gum up my cars or not. I don't mind spending a couple hundred extra dollars up front to do that, seeing that I am expecting to do this for the next several years. I just haven't gotten the last portion of the processor built yet so will go without it for the first few batches. I'm hoping to have that part completed within a couple weeks - it's kind of up to my dad, though. He's the one that's doing all the brainiac work on the stuff.

As for why I'm going down so small on filtering: Before I thought of centrifuging, I bought several sock filters (from 100 down to 1) and was planning on doing it this way. Now that I'm thinking of the centrifuge, I dont NEED to, but figured "Heck, why not see what it does?" - I bought two of each sock filter to give it a try back then, so it's either try this out or just let those sock filters sit and do nothing in my garage.

RJ1937,
I got my sock filters from http://chemequipco.com/index.html - he was very friendly and helpful, and the filters were about as cheap as I could find anywhere. It took a bit to get him on the phone (I had to call and leave a message a couple times) but I thought it was worth it.

Personally, if I were doing it again, I'd make a few changes to the sock filter plans.
1 - I'd go with a shorter sock filter for the 100mc (7 inch, instead of 14).
2 - I'd only go to 50mc.
3 - (still planning on doing this) I'd go with several 4" to 6" couplers, and 6" pipe, so the sock could sit down in the pipe without touching the inner edges of the pipe and blocking the flow. I'd only bring it down to 4 inches when necessary for the sock filter., then take it right back up to 6 inches.

Thanks,
-Scott

quote:

Originally posted by handcuff:

Of course, looking at it from my dad's perspective, all I can think is that his son is a crack-head: He wakes up early and goes outside, trying not to wake anyone up while he moves the trailer. As he grabs the trailer, the garage door opens up and then his grown son (who should know better) comes running out of the garage, yelling unintelligably, to smash his face into the trailer and then lay on the ground mumbling to himself...

Yep. That's the type of son we all want, right?

ROFLMAO!

I feel for your father. Reminds me a line delivered by Jackie Gleason in the movie "Smokey and the Bandit". I can't remember it exactly but I'll paraphrase the way I remember it: "Boy, when I get home I am going to smack your momma. No son this stupid could come from my loins".

I suspect my father has had a similar thought on a few occasions.