vegetable oil

[nathanrobo]

As Adrian R says, I'm making bio and it's not at all complicated!

This being said the first two tanks, one above the other on a frame would be perfect for straining, dewatering and centrifuging waste veg oil down to less than 0.5 micron for use as WVO fuel.

I picked the four tanks up today from Haverhill, set up the straining station, I'll be working on building the processor with it's condenser and the wash / dry / polish station this week. Should be painting it next week so hopefully pics in a weeks time!

If you wanted the two drums built up with coned bottoms (1" ball valve), with a frame and threaded bosses soldered in for thermostat and 3kw heating element, talk to James RL on vegoildiesel forum:

http://www.vegetableoildiesel.co.uk/forum/index.php

 

[Graham]

Hi Nathan,

What are you running your 4,2 L on exactly?

What is it costing you generally per liter into your tank?

Gra.

 

[Graham]

Converted my 80 series successfully to run on pure used vegetable oil. I have a two tank system on my vehicle which is a must to have the system work all year round without any problems. Better than mixing the oil and diesel as I was doing before. Stopped this as it has too many complications.

I used the company DieselVeg based in Wolverhampton. Clive the owner is wonderful in knowledge and support. Highly recommended. Been using the system for 6 months and had no problems as long as the kit is fitted correctly and also the used oil is filtered through the set process. The kit is very clever and is a brilliant setup


http://www.dieselveg.com/

Any questions please ask.

.
Hi,

What was the cost?

Did the cost include every thing bar the vegie oil?

Gra.

 

[nathanrobo]

Graham

I'm running the cruiser on FAME or Biodiesel. Costs are about 10p per litre chemicals, about 5 p per litre electricity (depending on efficiency of processor, size and insulation etc) and oil is generally free although I do pay 2 suppliers 10pence per litre.

Cost doesn't include the amortised cost of the processor, but to give some idea my first set up cost circa £1600 (I know better now). But I'll be selling it on Ebay and it will mostly pay for my new set up which will produce more fuel much faster.

So you amortise that £1600 across 5 years at various fuel prices and the number of litres that I make a year.

 

[Graham]

Hi Nathan, Thanks for the breakdown.

So excluding the set up costs, and your time to collect the oil, and your time to process the oil, the fuel is costing around 25 pence per liter.

ie,
10 pence to buy the oil
10 pence fro the chemicals
5 pence for the electricity.

Then the cost to recoup your capital outlay.

Looking on Ebay reveals all sorts of processors. The good, the bad, and the ugly springs to mind.
Some real home made jobs selling for around £300 to £500
Then the more professional one's like the Graham Lamb variety, for some thing like £1200

How do you choose? I guess the chemical usage would be a constant factor per liter of bio made, however the electricity would be the variable?
It seems that if you can minimise the heat losses by way of good insulation, then this is probably the best way to save electricity?
Am I right so far?

Looking at the processor part, ie, the conical tank, I see some are PVC, some are metal, and the Rolls Royce ones are stainless steel.
Does it make much difference between the PVC and the stainless steel?
I guess the mild steel one's would corrode over time ?

So do they all work the same way?

Gra.

 

[nathanrobo]

Hi

That's about the size of it - although if you have a condenser on your reactor you will recover 25 - 30% of the meth from the fuel after separating glycerin. Meth is 50p per litre delivered apprx and used at 16% by volume of your feedstock... Lye is about $42 delivered for 25Kg (25kg will give me about 3500 litres of BD) Other than your first few times, you personal time will be minimal (Plus you can use a pid with thermocouples etc. to add a fair amount of automation).

Processor wise, in my humble opinion the manufactured processors are poor value for money. Get it fabricated by James RL (pm me for contact details). Costs should be around £1K.

Stay away from plastic, SS is very expensive, make sure you have a condenser, effective squirrel and eductor. Also get a centrifuge and at least one polish pot for removing water down to <80ppms. In the winter you can centrifuge at say 2 or 3 deg C to remove HMPEs, this will help prevent waxing at low temps, additives also help!

btw I sell centrifuges, polish pots, gear pumps etc cheaper than anyone else (http://www.biofueltek.co.uk or look on ebay) sorry about the shameless plug! I also sell chemicals such as Cetane Booster and Coldflow for the winter.

 

[nathanrobo]

Ben,

I looked at your first post on this thread and at the time you were complaining about £1.30 litre I bet there are folk that would love to be buying it for £1.30 a litre now.

 

[nathanrobo]

here's a link to a picture on my new processor... it still needs painting, pipework fitting and Eductor and squirrel putting in and two 50 litre peripheral pumps mounting and insulating. On the side of the cone that you can't see is a 3kw heater, this will be controlled by a thermocouple and Pid in time.

The next pic shows my straining station for straining oil without the need to mess about with filters. The drums still need ball valves, immersion heaters etc fitting along with a pump for pulling in oil and a drum sized 200 micron strainer which could be interchangeable with the drum's lid which could have a centrifuge mounted on it for WVO fuel users. It will also be painted then insulated

btw the bar metal square tube that goes up the side of the tank is a quad condenser, this will recover meth out of finished fuel fast! Also I don't have a scubbies when it comes to embedding pics, can anyone tell me how?

I'll post a picture of the final tank which does the washing, drying, polishing and final drying by the week end, but I'm sure you get the idea... Once painted they look a little prettier, but the key point is that they make much better fuel faster than most of the processors manufactured, marketed and sold as a high price!

 

[karl webster]

Hi Nathan

Cant get the pics up

Karl

 

[nathanrobo]

Karl

Any idea how to embed the pics?

I always have probs with photobucket on this site for some reason!

 

[karl webster]

Crispin has done something now that when you do a post there is the option below where you can just upload pics off your computer rarther than photo bucket. Try it mate

 

[nathanrobo]

With biodiesel, if you dose correctly, you will get 95 litres out of every 100 litres of feedstock in. If you persist with talking to restaurants, pubs etc, you will find plenty of oil free.

I only pay two restaurants and I've taken oil rounds from licensed oil traders. I do have an exemption as a waste carrier using less than 2500 litres of biodiesel for personal use.

 

[nathanrobo]

Thanks Karl,

Pictures are up now... This is three of the four tanks that we were talking about. There is still a lot of work to do mounting pumps, doing pipe work etc. I didn't previously mention the venturi valve or the spray bar.

 

[karl webster]

Looking good. I was thinking after we last spoke. I dont understand how you can produce 350L in one batch. Each drum is 205L.

Karl

 

[nathanrobo]

Looking good. I was thinking after we last spoke. I dont understand how you can produce 350L in one batch. Each drum is 205L.

Karl

Hi Karl, it's two batches of 175 litres each in 5 hours and because you have a batch process going on, whilst you are washing / polishing/ drying in the last tank, you can be reacting in the reactor and straining / dewatering in the first pair of tanks.

It's mostly about the eductor's ability to mix the methox with the feedstock efficiently, and the condenser's ability to pull out the meth quickly, so that soaps drop and the product can be moved into the next tank.

I've not yet made fuel this quickly, my old goldenray took a day and a half for 140 litres (a 120 is designed for 120 litre batches, but if you 2 stage dose, you can get more feedstock in the tank as there is less methox).

Does that all make sense?

 

[karl webster]

Im on the same page now mate

Understand Looking good so far

Karl

 

[nathanrobo]

btw any joy with the ignition parts?

Would a complete column, less the steering wheel (mines an anniversary model with wood), be expensive?

 

[karl webster]

Havnt rang him yet mate as got to talk to him about a few things and they will have to be sent over together. Next couple of days and i will defo have some news

 

[nathanrobo]

No worries!

Did you see folk looking for rear light clusters for 100 series? viewtopic.php?f=13&t=14043

 

[Graham]

I see said the blind man,,,

Thanks for the pictures, now I am also understanding the method.

When your set up is finishem including painting, what do you expect it to cost you?

Gra.