I own a duct cleaning business, and one night when I couldn't sleep, a crazy idea came to me. If I can pull 15000 CFM with my vacuums, why couldn't I use that power to suck up oil?

I plan to mount an old truck mounted carpet cleaning machine (tank only) in my truck, then attach my 13 HP gas powered vacuum to it. It has electric start and its own battery, and I can pull a crap load (or is it a butt load?) of vacuum through the tank, and attach a 1.5" hose to drop into the collection barrel. I'll post pics when finished.

quote:

If I can pull 15000 CFM with my vacuums, why couldn't I use that power to suck up oil?

Some vacuum pumps can move a lot of air, but only at 1atm. Try to generate any real vacuum and they stall out. Think of a home vacuum, there is A LOT of air moving, but put your hand over then end of the hose, and it stops completely. That is NOT the kind of vacuum pump you want for an oil sucker.

If I put my finger over the input to my Gast vacuum pump...it will suck the skin from my finger into the hose, if I left it there long enough, it would probably give me a nasty hickey!

Agreed with your post about vacuum flowrates at atmospheric conditions.

However, a vacuum operates on both lift and airflow. They are inversely related, so yes, you can block off the airflow with your finger but the lift will probably injure you. The two elements of vacuum must be balanced in order to have an effective vacuum collection system.The vacuum systems used by the average van mounted carpet cleaners can pull solid streams of water through 200+ feet of 2" hose, and up over 6' of elevation. We used these to suck the water out of crawlspaces.

According to my schoolin', a vacuum is a lower pressure area than the surrounding atmosphere. In the presence of a vacuum, especially a directed or contained source, any material lighter than the "weight" generated by the vacuum will be moved in the direction of the vacuum source.

Therefore, by simply generating more force than the mass of the material you are trying to move, you can theoretically move it. However, other forces come into play, such as friction and viscosity. Some of the powerful pumps we used in the Navy required booster pumps or lift pumps to overcome these forces.

Since the system I have was specifically designed for high levels of lift and simultaneously, significant airflow, it will be well suited for oil collection, but admittedly, every system has its limitations. I will tell you that a similar vac system I use can pull wet sawdust through 125' of 6" hose as long as airflow is maintained via a discharge port.

Hopefully thick oil will cooperate!

I use a 120 gallon propane tank. With the antique vac pump I have on it I can pull 25" in 15 minutes via a 12 volt batt. I head to my pick up source, put in the 1.5" hose, open the valve and in under 10 minutes I have the tank very close to being full.

If you want pix, PM me your e-mail address. It's not pretty, but it works

my email is automodeler@comcast.net. I don't know how to PM you.