WVO Storage and Distribution

[Adam]

Now that my WVO system seems to be running properly I'm shifting my focus to the filtering/storage facilities. Eric was nice enough to donate a couple of 45 Gal barrels to our co-op, but we need a bit more space to store the 1000 Gal of oil we have back logged. So I'm searching for one of these 1000 liter totes:

I've seen them on eBay for $100 or so, but I need to find a local source that I can pick it up from to make it cost effective. Any suggestions as to where I should look? BTW, what are these called, just 'totes'?

[BCDelica]

Adam, I just called and they are $115 locally. Have seen them in feed stores in Powell River and Abbotsford. $100 bucks to store $1000 of fuel, and with the price of Aluminum; not too bad.

Will you be offering reasonably priced WVO fills, when your ready?

Cheers,
Kev

[Adam]

I'll check the feed store around here and see what available, thanks for the advice.

Kevin if you are in town and need some oil we'd be happy to fill you up for free. We've been tossing around ideas about how to handle regular users outside the current co-op (the 3 of us), but haven't decided on anything yet. Ideally all the members would contribute oil pickup service, or filtering service, etc. and the oil would be free to everyone. It would be so much simpler to keep money out of the equation. On the other hand there are a lot of our friends interested in running on WVO that don't have the time/interest to be involved in the collection/filter/storage side of it. My thought was that we assign a monetary value to the supply and labour and then members could either contribute oil, labour or some compensation. We are interested in making money off this venture, but setting up an organization that is self sustaining where everyone feels like they are benefiting.

Some of the numbers we were tossing around were:
* oil pick up service $.10/litre
* oil filtering service $.15/litre
* oil storage/distribution service $.05/litre

Then non-members could roll in and fill up for $0.30/litre without any commitment. These are just rough numbers, I still have to look into setting up a legal co-op and see how that will work. I also don't have any idea of what, if anything, we need to do legal to sell oil, so for foreseeable future the oil is free.

[BCDelica]

Sounds like you have it well planned out! Way to go.

When a WVO vehicle is road tripping, we find ourself having to 'shiver' pay diesel prices. Thanks for the offer, if there's processed WVO in the barrel stop by for a fill in Powell River.

Cheers,
Kev

[docsavage]

Look for places that have been spraying for Gypsy Moths, the BT pesticide is shipped in such totes (and it is harmless to humans). The scrap yard in Williams Lake was giving them away last summer.

James

[Adam]

Thanks for the tip James. I'll ask the city if they are spraying this year, I think they have in previous years. I'll check the scrap yards too.

[BCDelica]

Processing question added - do you, have you, used EZ-Strainers™? I didn't realize they are reasonably priced, couldn't help but wonder how they work in different screen sizes.

Kev

[Adam]

Those strainers look like a good deal, but I haven't tried them. I don't even have any open top barrels, just four sealed ones. The processing I'm doing now avoids pouring for the most part (which is where all my spills occurred.....OK, most of my spills). I suck oil straight out of the cube or bucket with a 70 micron wand from Plant Drive. This gets all but the bottom 2 inches of oil and avoids most of the solids. Then the oil passes through a 30 micron then a 10 micron filter into the storage drum. When the temp is 5 degrees or more I can pump through a cube in 3-4 minutes. I can hardly wait to see how quick this is in the summer. The only pouring I do right now is combining the 2" leavings in each cube into one container which I leave to settle for a few weeks.

If I do get a hold of a drum with a removable lid I think I'll get some of those strainers and dump the 2" leavings from each cube into one big barrel. It looks like it would be more efficient.

[BCDelica]

Those strainers look like a good deal, but I haven't tried them. I don't even have any open top barrels, just four sealed ones. The processing I'm doing now avoids pouring for the most part (which is where all my spills occurred.....OK, most of my spills). I suck oil straight out of the cube or bucket with a 70 micron wand from Plant Drive. This gets all but the bottom 2 inches of oil and avoids most of the solids. Then the oil passes through a 30 micron then a 10 micron filter into the storage drum. When the temp is 5 degrees or more I can pump through a cube in 3-4 minutes. I can hardly wait to see how quick this is in the summer. The only pouring I do right now is combining the 2" leavings in each cube into one container which I leave to settle for a few weeks.

When I play around with different processing ideas, I always go back to pouring the jugs. It's faster and (IMO) gets more out of a jugs. More exercise too. My personal worst spills have happened; when I walked away for to long filling my tidy tank/flo'n'go tank and when the heat shield came off the heater element melted a small hole in a full blue barrel. It's unbelievable how much area a couple gallons of hot oil will cover. Still love that fact that before 11 this morning I had made ready $250 worth of fuel. Summer time filtering is much faster, my auto-stop filling nozzle doesn't stop when the weathers below 20c. Ilan's one of your 3, right?

Two tips, I like, that I have never mentioned are: Rubber gloves allow better grip and keep your hands clean, nitrile gloves last for ever with veggie. A wine bottle washer, in the laundry tub, makes short work of rinsing the used jugs. It only take 1-3 cups of hot water to clean the worst out, and a little swish of laundry powder with water after cleans em quick. Only downside is I have to boil the gizmo before bottling wine.

[Adam]

Ilan's one of your 3, right?

Yup, Ilan and Bernard and the two guys in town that have been hoarding oil for the past few years. Bernard has a beast of a diesel truck that he's been running on WVO for a few years and Ilan is still trying to get his WVO kit installed. So we only have the two of us drawing oil from the stores right now.

Two tips, I like, that I have never mentioned are: Rubber gloves allow better grip and keep your hands clean, nitrile gloves last for ever with veggie. A wine bottle washer, in the laundry tub, makes short work of rinsing the used jugs. It only take 1-3 cups of hot water to clean the worst out, and a little swish of laundry powder with water after cleans em quick. Only downside is I have to boil the gizmo before bottling wine.

Bernard turned me on top the blue Nitrile gloves when dealing with the oil, they work great for working on the van too. Pretty cheap from Costco, $10 for 100 gloves, and they can be used several times before they rip or get so funky I have to throw them out. It turns out I've got a bottle washer too. Since I only brew beer once or twice a year I guess using it for both purposes won't be too difficult. Of course I have to brew 12 batches at once to keep this thing stocked for the year.

[Adam]

Filtered 400 litres in 2.5 hours today. Amazing what changing the filters will do for performance. The last two cubes were pretty slow, but I think it was just the 70 micron wand that was clogged, not the 30 or 10 micron filter. Here are some shots of the filtering set up. The bottom two show the 30 micron and 10 micron filter in series (left) and the redline pump (right).



I still have another 400 litres to filter in buckets, but I've run out of room in the barrels to store filtered WVO.

[Schwa]

You need one of these





151160 Litres!

[Adam]

I wonder if the neighbors would object The eventual plan is to build a shed to house all the equipment and filtered oil. If I can store 1000-2000 filtered litres that would satisfy the needs of our group.

[BCDelica]

Your filter set-up looks great, does it attract the neighbors over well your filtering? I take it that's not your permanent set up?

Nice beer taps!!

Kev

[Kuan]

Adam,

Just read these posts. Looks like a great WVO setup.

You could try Harpers Recycling in Duncan. They have a lot of stuff.

HTHs

Kuan