VEG flash heater design

[greasy_Exc]

I am trying to make my centrifuge setup a bit more efficiant, so instead of heating my oil with a single hot water element for 4 hours, I have been thinking about a way to heat it up in route to the centrifuge. What I had in mind was a steel pipe with a heating element on each end... The oil hits the first one on its way to the centrifuge, goes up a length of pipe and hits another on its way out. The pipe would be about 1 1/4" thick (or whatever the threads on a heating element require) set vertical and about 3 feet in length. One element on bottom one on top, with a drain valve on the bottom before the pipe starts, so I can drain after cleanings. The question is... Does the pipe need to be shorter or longer to ensure that maximum heating occurs before it hits the centrifuge? My goal is to have 215* before it goes into the centrifuge. Any ideas on how to make this happen? Thanks

Greasy

[leongriffin]

In-line heater is absolutely the way to go, I cant emagine trying to heat all the oil in advance. See my design HERE. I heat to 150 at 15gph with this 1500W heater. It does it easily and can do up to 250 but things can melt at that temperature so be careful. Also, if you choose to use a different element, be careful of the watt density; vegetable oil is only supposed to take 25watts/sq-inch or bad things may happen. For this reason water immersion heaters are not acceptable from a spec/design perspective as their watt density will be much higher.

Leon
WVOdesigns.com

[vegistroker73L]

Here's another good link with a diagram/description. I've essentially copied this design and it works great:

Dieselcraft Centrifuge for WVO