Contrabasso
Hazard to Others
Posts: 277
Registered: 2-4-2008
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Waste oil burning
Looking for wisdom about waste oil burning, I have a source of oil and I'd like to turn it into heat and hot water for the house. BUT it seems that
cleanly burning waste oil isn't perfectly simple.
I've studied backyard metal casting, and the Mother Earth designs but they both come very short of an automatic burner for waste oil that will work on
demand from a thermostat signal.
Does anyone have info or links to share please. Can I turn it into electricity too?
|
|
|
watson.fawkes
International Hazard
Posts: 2793
Registered: 16-8-2008
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Quote: Originally posted by Contrabasso  | | Looking for wisdom about waste oil burning, I have a source of oil and I'd like to turn it into heat and hot water for the house.
|
The key for a clean burn is good atomization. If your waste source is fairly clean of particulate
contamination, you can use a nozzle standard residential oil burner. If it's not, you can use a Babington-style atomizer, which uses a surface of
positive local curvature to spread out oil with its own surface tension and then atomize it from an orifice. A Babington does force the fuel through
any small spaces, so it can burn pretty much anything within a certain viscosity range.
Auto-starting is a whole different kettle of fish. The side of the fire triangle that's missing at the beginning is heat. Standard oil burners use a
spark gap. Babington can use that, but because they use an aspirator gas, they can be started up by igniting propane. In any case, reliability is not
immediate and takes some fiddling. And you'll want a burn chamber thermocouple so that you're not pumping fuel into an unlit chamber.
|
|
|
Contrabasso
Hazard to Others
Posts: 277
Registered: 2-4-2008
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
For full auto function I may consider a propane gas valve to light a propane flame into which I then fire atomised oil. The gas valve can come ready
certified!
|
|
|
Mr. Wizard
International Hazard
Posts: 1042
Registered: 30-3-2003
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
By 'waste oil' are you talking about used cooking oil, used motor oil, or contaminated truck fuel?
|
|
|
Contrabasso
Hazard to Others
Posts: 277
Registered: 2-4-2008
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
I have a good source of waste truck engine oil, possibly some WVO also but primarily the dirty black stuff from engine sumps!
|
|
|
Mr. Wizard
International Hazard
Posts: 1042
Registered: 30-3-2003
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
Used motor oil. I've often thought about using it myself. I don't live in very cold climate, so it's on the back burner, to use a bad pun. I did make
a shop warming stove once that used motor oil, a simple cast iron pot on a bed of sand, inside a barrel. I didn't have access to the Mother Earth or
similar stoves then, and I found it was difficult to control the stove. Once the fire went out, resulting in a big oily mess, and at other times the
fire would lag behind fuel flow, and then surge suddenly with scary huffing and puffing of flames out of the air intakes. It almost always generated
black smoke and a lingering disgusting burned oil smell. When it worked it heated very well, with bright red heat showing through the metal.
Your idea of a propane pilot light sounds good. One of the main problems with used motor oil is it's relative lack of volatility and need for heat to
burn completely. I'm sure you know this, but I mention it for other readers. I would also suggest a fail in the off position for any oil flow or feed
mechanism.
Please keep us informed of your work and ideas.
|
|
|
Contrabasso
Hazard to Others
Posts: 277
Registered: 2-4-2008
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
I've seen the Babington atomiser illustrated with a propane feed at tank pressure which will light easily when mixed with a little air. There was a
calculation of the propane consumption and heat and it was less than 1% of the oil consumption and heat output.
Now the idea of feeding a small propane jet into a big boiler and using it to atomise and ignite waste oil seems interesting.
|
|
|
leu
Hazard to Others
Posts: 368
Registered: 13-10-2005
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
There is a lot of information on the internet on the subject:
http://www.journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_moth...
locally it's done by slowly dripping the used engine oil into a wood burning stove 
Chemistry is our Covalent Bond
|
|
|
Contrabasso
Hazard to Others
Posts: 277
Registered: 2-4-2008
Member Is Offline
Mood: No Mood
|
|
The trouble with several older bodges is that they work but need watching all the time, which is fine in a workshop, garage or shed. BUT in a kitchen
boiler as a built in unit some automation is necessary! The target is to have a unit that will burn the worst available oil AND be fully automatic!
Yes this is to feed hot water and radiators in a house and respond to thermostats calling for heat.
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xpblue/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
