An idea came up in the shop today - is it possible to process used motor oil (filtered or course) like you'd process used vegetable oil to make a burnable fuel?
While waste petro isn't good to mix with veggie, you can still use it for heat. Check out the plans for the Babbington heater. Very intriguing. I'd love to fabricate one of these multi-fuel heaters to provide hot water and building heat.
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An idea came up in the shop today - is it possible to process used motor oil (filtered or course) like you'd process used vegetable oil to make a burnable fuel?
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Ken,
No. The point of transesterification is to snip the glycerin head off the veggie oil triglyceride molecule. Once the glycerin is separated, it can settle to the bottom and be drained off. What's left is fatty acid methyl ester -- biodiesel.
Motor oil is not made of triglycerides, so the whole purpose of the biodiesel reaction does not apply. It's kind of like asking if you can debone ice cream. Or--closer to home--how to change the spark plug in our engines. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
To make motor oil into diesel fuel, you might be able to use catalytic cracking, such as oil refineries use. But there are many additives in motor oil that might affect the results, so I don't think it would be worth it -- certainly not on a small scale.
You have a shop and lots of used motor oil, right? I agree with Todd, use the oil to heat your shop. But instead of a homemade heater such as the Babbington, try a professional shop heater like this:
I'd love one of those Lanairs, Reznors and other brands. But have you checked the prices for those things? Wow! I can pay for a lot of electricity and/or natural gas before I can cost-justify those puppies. But, the idea is still good... take what would be considered a waste product and get a secondary use out of it. Its they key to recycling.
I design my solvent cleaners to be acceptable to this type recycling. Rather than create a hazardous waste, I generate a waste oil for "BTU recovery"... or fuel oil. I have the fuel but can't afford the heater!
Todd T
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2002 F-250 Lariat, PSD, CC, short bed, 3.73, auto tranny, Line-X bed liner, AFE Filter, HX crossover, intake heater delete, Evans NGC+, Dieselsite 203 thermostat, coolant filter, Amsoil by-pass filter, Schaeffer's synthetic blend tranny fluid, Bob Riley's tranny filter, Velvet Ride shackles, Rancho 9000 shocks with in-cab adjustment, 60 gallon aux tank for burning heated WVO, burning veggie since fall of '04.
Thanks for the replys guys. Yes, we have a shop and an endless supply of used motor oil. We already have a waste oil heater and as of right now, this very moment, we have enough oil to heat the shop for 2 winters and still have 500gal. extra. The supply is increasing every day.
The reason I asked is because we did a little experiment with an engine we had on our dyno. We heated some oil and filtered it down to 2 microns. We then mixed it with diesel fuel (85% waste oil / 15% diesel) and burned it in the dyno engine (slightly modded Cummins N14) On diesel only the engine produced 660fwhp, but on waste oil it produced 685fwhp. A 25hp increase isn't that bad [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] EGTs were the same and the engine actually ran quieter/smoother from what I saw. In case your wondering, both runs were done within 30 minutes of each other.
This is why I was inquiring about the possibility of processing used motor oil into something that can be burned in an engine, even in the winter. The engines seem to like it, and I don't see it as being harmful to the injectors provided it's properly filtered.
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The reason I asked is because we did a little experiment with an engine we had on our dyno. We heated some oil and filtered it down to 2 microns. We then mixed it with diesel fuel (85% waste oil / 15% diesel) and burned it in the dyno engine (slightly modded Cummins N14) On diesel only the engine produced 660fwhp, but on waste oil it produced 685fwhp. A 25hp increase isn't that bad [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] EGTs were the same and the engine actually ran quieter/smoother from what I saw. In case your wondering, both runs were done within 30 minutes of each other.
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You got me interested. I am in the same sitiation that you are in. We have a seemingly endless supply of used motor oil. And I think is could be burned the same way and produce more power because it has more BTU's. We also have the used oil heaters in our shop. I have worked on them and the residental #2 oil heaters and the major differance is the little oil heater that heats the oil so it can be sprayed in to the fire box. I hope you could get a chance to try to run a motor on straight used motor oil and get back with your results.
I have heard of some people in the north west that mix filtered used motor oil with diesel. I think it is about 10 to 20% oil and they don't use heaters. I would be interested to know if this will work with a PSD and how high the % could be. You know oil ans diesel mix real well.
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94 f250 idi turbo sc e4od alum fac rims 149,289 --dana 60 frt with posi--10.25 rear w/posi--shouldnt get stuck!! ats turbo 3" parts on--what a diff from stock turbo!!!!!--- also 96 F250 with 305,000 is fixed!!-- 7.3 rattler-also 85 6.9-needs new engine!! tired!!
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I have heard of some people in the north west that mix filtered used motor oil with diesel. I think it is about 10 to 20% oil and they don't use heaters. I would be interested to know if this will work with a PSD and how high the % could be. You know oil ans diesel mix real well.
Mixing engine oil, ATF oil, Hydralic oil, Marvel Mystery Oil, etc etc etc is nothing new on diesels. Diesels will burn just about anything.
The thing you have to be concerned with, is not *IF* it will burn, but *WHAT* you are CREATING when you burn weird stuff.
We all know BIO-Diesel (the real processed stuff, not WVO) lowers EVERY emmision except NOx (which actually goes UP).
Now Bio-D is a pretty clean fuel in that there is only ONE thing burning. Engine oils have all kinds of additives, and whatever was in the old oilpan it came out of. When you burn this stuff, who knows what pollutants you are creating.
Here is an experiment. Go to your local emissions inspection joint and have them run a sniff test on regualar diesel or Bio-Diesel, then switch to your engine oil concotion and have them test it again and post the results. That should answer once and for all whats coming out the tail pipe.
I doubt it could hurt that much its already in our motors as the inj. O-rings get wore we burn more and more oil with the fuel and I would guess the added horse power would come from the extra BTU's per unit of oil compared to BTU's per unit of #2 [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shrug.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/warmsmile.gif[/img]
How did it work? Does it smoke bad of oil smoke or does it burn complete? How is the power? Any problems?
Some have said they are worried about what is coming out of the pipe. I am too. But there are a lot of the used oil heaters in shops all around the country. I haven't heard if anyone has put a sniffer in those pipes but in Kentucky there is a good tax incentive to put one in if you have the used oil. We have one and were allowed to write it of in 2 years and take the lease payment off taxes also. I thought the EPA was behind all this. We also have a oven that bakes engine blocks, heads and stuff to get them clean. There was a tax break on these too at one time I think and I thought the EPA was pushing that also. I don't know what is coming out of the pipe when burning used oil but I know you don't want to pore this stuff out on the ground.
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