Waste Motor Oil Refining

[pigseye]

Hi guy,
A few more questions regarding fullers earth and WMO.

How long would the fuller earth last as a filter?  I'm wondering how many gallons of WMO I could effectively filter with 25 lbs of FE.  I understand that the most accurate answer to this question would be "it depends" since I cannot provide an accurate description of the oil I will be filtering. 

But in your experience, how long would it last for you?  What were the conditions of the oil that you filtered?

How can you tell when the FE is no longer effectively filtering?

How do you dispose of FE that has had it's filtering properties exhausted?

Thanks,
Pigseye
Thanks

[GuyFawkes]

1. don't know, never bother to time it.

2. don't know, never bothered to measure it.

(we'd just grab a 32lb bag as / when / if needed.)

3. with oil flow basically stops and the FE is sludge itself

4. old quarry type landfills used for all the nasty shit

[rcavictim]

Perhaps the saturated Fuller's Earth could be sterilized in a burning barrel with agitation/stirring until the outgassing no longer supported combustion and then what's left safely put in land fill.

[Tom]

If FE is the same thing as diatomaceous earth it is common and cheap at pool supply stores. I used to use it for our pool filter.

[getterdone]

has any one built a centerfuse for cleaning oil? i'd like to build one. pictures speak a thousand words. every one has some used crankcase oil to get rid of. i'd like to run it in my 6/1 lister for power. can any one help us with this? do we need to mix it with bio, veggy oil? i figure that we would have to heat the injecter line. i'd like to see some pictures of how you all are heating injecter lines . i know you can heat them by electric, or by heat from the cooling system. i've ordered an electric element but have'nt got it yet.  thank's to you all that respond.

[Tom]

You know, I was admiring my wife's new juicer and it looks like it would make a great centrifuge. The juice goes through a strainer and the debris gets flung in to a hopper. She won't let me try it on WMO though. 

[CD in BC]

Exactly how was the filtering with Fuller's Earth done?  I mean the hardware side of it.

[blhfla]

has any one built a centerfuse for cleaning oil? i'd like to build one. pictures speak a thousand words. every one has some used crankcase oil to get rid of. i'd like to run it in my 6/1 lister for power. can any one help us with this? do we need to mix it with bio, veggy oil? i figure that we would have to heat the injecter line. i'd like to see some pictures of how you all are heating injecter lines . i know you can heat them by electric, or by heat from the cooling system. i've ordered an electric element but have'nt got it yet.  thank's to you all that respond.

I am working with a resourceful local machinist to construct a prototype 1300G centrifuge that is compact, efficient, durable and inexpensive (under $200) to process WVO for my VW TDI. It should do WMO just fine. Would anybody be interested in purchasing if it can be made for less than $200? If there is enough interest he will do a limited production run.

[JohnF13]

I'd be interested in that, any idea of the throughput - gallons/hr?

[captfred]

What's wrong with the readily available Dieselcraft Centrifuge? Runs between 3 and 4 litres per minute  (about 1 us gal) @ 90 psi.



Fred

[spike]

I would be really interested in your centrifuge, my carrot jucie has started to taste like SAE 15W-40

Tim

[Doug]

Want to change everything?

Find a suplier if Zeolite for use as a catalyst and build your own cracking plant.

I've seen it done without the catalyst and although it works it requires a lot more heat and produces a lot of tar. The right catalyst and burning the light ends to drive the process might be possible on a small scale.

Actualy cracking oil is done at the high school chemstry level with even cheaper catalyst. If a high school student can do it.....

[Doug]

No I realy don't know much about the subject.....

My niece is studying chemistry in University, maybe she can smarten me up. I know the process involves Flash heating oil to 1200 to 1400 F and running it threw crushed pumice cracking bed. This will quickly coke and tar things up so the Pumice will have to be burned out to clean it.

Tars are soluable in the in the fuel produced but at a different density so they could be centrafuged ( this is messy and part of the process I did inthe 90's ) 

[mobile_bob]

a thought

filter the oil with a screen to get the rocks, feathers and frenchfries out

cut it with diesel to thin it a bit

filter it again to 5 microns or maybe then to 2 microns

then run it thru activated charcoal to get the extremely fine particles out?
i watched a history channel show the other night, modern marvels or whatever
they were showing how activated charcoal takes the color out of some sort of alcohol or solvent that was blue
now if it can take the blue out, perhaps it can take the black out of oil?

there are many grades of activated charcoal available, finding the right grade might be a trial and error proposition
but i wonder if it might just work.

many years ago i watched a program on how they get diamonds seperated from the dirt and gravel after the rock was crushed
they slurry the crushed with water and run it over a board trough that is heavily coated in grease.
the diamonds being carbon will stick in the grease and everything else does not, water and sand just wash right over

the point being carbon sticks to wet grease, the black in waste oil is carbon
now we can't run oil over grease without it dissolving the grease, but
oil doesn't as far as i know dissolve activated carbon, so perhaps the sub micron carbon in the oil might adhere
and be caught in the activated charcoal just as the blue color did in the history channel program.

personally i think it might be worth checking into and running some small scale testing
the waste or spent activated charcoal should be able to be used to burn for heat i would think as a means of disposal

so maybe a multistep
and use the fullers earth as one of the steps as well

a final pass through a luberfiner 750 filter would then polish the stock to high enough quality to be used as a fuel
and my thinking is it would probably be cleaner than what one gets at the average pump on most days.

bob g

[Doug]

Zeolite and or pumice will grab the carbone Bob thats the reason the Catalyst needs to be burned off.