WVO Storage and Distribution

[Adam]

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!!

Most of my neighbors found out about the WVO kit during my 4 month of me swearing in the driveway while I install of the pieces, so they weren't to surprised to actually see me filtering the oil. I think they thought it was about time.

You're right, the setup is temporary, the next project is to build a shed to house all the equipment outside. I need to reclaim the foosball table and climbing wall in the garage from all the WVO gear. Besides, stepping over oily gear to get a draft beer from the kegerator gets dangerous as the night goes on.

What are you using for a pump/nozzel to fill up for your setup? I was thinking about buying a $25 nozzle from Princess Auto and using my existing redline pump, but it would be nice to have something independent of my filtering system. It can be a bit of a hassle to set up just for a fillup. BTW, where are the shots of your 5 micron double filtering dewatering system?? Throw me a bone here, I need pictures if I'm going to improve anything

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

Thanks for the tip, I'll check it out. The storage situation isn't as urgent as it was a few weeks ago, we managed to dig up a few more free 45Gal barrels. My original thought was that we'd centralize all the filtering/storage to eliminate the need for duplicate equipment, but the setup is so portable that for now all the people in the group might end up keeping several barrels on their property and exchanging the filtering equipment every other month, or when needed. I've got an 80L tank and four 20L jerry cans filled with filtered WVO, so I should be OK without any equipment for a month. Once those are empty all I need is a relatively cheap transfer pump to get the oil from a barrel into the tank, and we have a spare of these floating around the group.

[BCDelica]

More importantly is the kegerator portable? Can it run on 12v?

If so, it must join the next Delica meet.



LOL


I do have a nozzle your coop can have, came with my tidy tank pump. I use an auto stop nozzle from Princess Auto. Send me a email, my processing center is kind'a embarrassing; heck it's a disaster zone. Oh, I have your email.

[Freeisel]

Greetings all,

I stumbled onto this site looking for info on storage of WVO. I figure that is serendipity at it's finest. I've got many pet projects but at the top of my list is the production of biodeisel. I currently drive a Jeep CJ7 which I built; Aside from pounding the sheet metal casting the parts myself that is. I am however very interested in these awesome vans I see everywhere now in the lower mainland. I am on the verge of swapping a Mercedes or VM Motori CRD engine into my rock monster ( to make it the first DJ7 in existence ) but I may still consider buying one of these Mitsubishis.

To me the most important thing here is not what we have that is diesel powered, but how we power our diesel! I admire the cooperative way that some of you are going about your own efforts. Learning and getting the job done is so much easier when it's done this way, IMHO. My idea for some time now has been to create a similar co-op in the lower mainland for anyone interested in breaking free of the bloodsucking oil companies while doing something positive for the environment. I happen to live on ten acres so storage of said WVO would not be a problem. I'm looking for large storage tanks which I will bury close to a barn which would house the filtering operation. I'd like to have thousands of gallons in storage at all times.

My questions to anyone who's researched are ... How long can bio diesel be stored without degradation of the product? Would keeping the oil at a particular temperature prolong it's life underground? Is any food grade container sufficient for storage? What are the implications of selling fuel to 'friends' who are not part of the co-op? Is anyone producing the necessary methanol as well? I've head that it's in the same category as running a still and therefore technically illegal without some sort of license.

I can just see the friggin untouchables taking claw hammers to all our barrels of bio like some scene from the 30's and I'm only 'sort of' joking.

[konadog]

Hey all;
Is this home heating oil tank of use to any of you wvo guys? We no longer use it and would be happy to give it away to someone using it it for wvo storage.

[EricN]

If only you lived closer, that would save me a ton of work. Maybe I will have to time a trip up there if no one else closer takes it.

[Adam]

Finally got the foundation level and the shed assembled. The totes are filling up fast. Nanaimo WVO station is in business.

[BCDelica]

That's awesome Adam! Can't wait to stop by soon.

Cheers,
Kev

[delicat]

Bonjour!

I was looking at Adam's pictures for his pump set up (on previous page) and have a few questions. I ended up buying the same pump along with a few extras (a 400 microns wand, a 140 microns filter on the suction side, a 30 and 10 microns cleanable filters on the exit side along with a valve to by-pass the 10/30 microns filters).

I also bought a few EZ Strainers to fit on either 55G drums or 5G buckets. (200, 400 and 600 microns as they were pretty cheap and wanted to try them out.)

This system should work fine (by the way, my garage started looking like Adam's with all those 16L jugs everywhere!) but what I'm wondering is how to de-water?

From Adam's pictures it seems like he has a short wand and picks up his WVO directly from the jugs using the pump then runs it through the 2 filters in line and that last parts that I'm not sure what it is (the black one along with the 2 filters). Adam, are you good to filter without heating the oil?

What I was planing was to pour the WVO from the 16L jugs through the EZ Strainer (got to test which one works best) into a 55G drums with and let it sit for a while. Then this is where I was going to de-water by one of these options:
(ps. my oil seems pretty clean to start with, pure canola changed every other day and no grease/water. It's from a good Japanese restaurant).

1) Dont' bother 'cause it's been sitting in my drums for a few weeks. Just filter through the 400 microns wand, the 140 microns pre-pump filter, the 30 and 10 microns post-pump filters and into my storage tank or Delica and Vroum!

2) Install a outlet valve about 6" from the bottom of the drum with a heating element. Pull the heated WVO through the outlet valve using the pump and back into the top of the drum circulating for a while (1hr?), until satisfied that there's no more water. At the end I'd filter it as described above.

3) Just pumping the heated WVO using the 400 microns (no re-circulation via outlet valve at bottom of drum) and filtering it as described above.

4) Forgetting about everything and just going to bed!

Merci!
David

[Adam]

Sounds like you are going to have a nice setup David. I'm using a 100 micron EZ strainer for my initial filter where I pour the jugs/buckets into the 55 Gal drum. I've installed a 1500W (120V) hot water heating element about 4" from the bottom of the barrel and I heat the drum up to 200F or so once it is full (well 6" from the top, don't want it to expand and over flow). Then I let the drum cool over night or until I'm ready to filter, then I heat it up to 120F and filter through a 10 micron goldenrod element. I'm ordered the 30/10 micron cleanable filters and I'll pick them up on the way back from the US next weekend.

I found when I heat the oil, the oil below the heating element does not heat up very much at all, so I've used some PVC tubing to stir it up for the initial heating session, but for the filtering session I make sure my inlet is above the heating element so that I'm not sucking the cooler layer which should have a much higher sediment load.