If your looking for another cheap alternative, you can ask a pizza shop for their left over canolia oil. Then just filter it out, whatever the means are, and burn away. I know of some people that use about 10% canolia in deisel trucks. What have you done so far with yours?

I haven't really looked for a particular type of oil, I collect my oil from a number of different restaurants, and then I filter it with a 5 micron filter. I don't use any home heating oil mixed in, it is 100% vegetable oil.

I run all my farm equipment that is diesel on SVO I made my filters and oil boilers to flash vap water out They work great and my equipment runs great the only problum is the outside temp to cold clogs the fuel filters but a heated supply tank covers that. I run stright svo Harvey

Does anyone know of a source of filtered WVO in northern NJ? I'm busy to the point where going around to restaurants and the like and doing the collection, filtering, and possible centrifuging will take too much time. Note that it does not need to have glycols separated out for biodiesel use. Just "cleaned up" raw stuff is fine. I'd be willing to pay between $1.50 and $2.00 per gallon, and to go get it with a van and 55 gallon drums once every couple of weeks. There is a place in Modena, Pa (Waste Oil Recyclers) that sells it for $1.25 per gallon filtered down to (I believe) 5 microns, but it is too far away.

Any and all replies would be appreciated. Thanks.

BernieK

I have 1 micron filtered and dewatered WVO for sale in central/north NJ and can supply on a regular basis. You can contact me at 908-832-9096. Please leave your name and number and what it is about and I will get back to you.

There are more or less standard oil burners (mostly Beckett AFG series) which have been modified with a vane pump for atomizing air on the far end of the motor, and use so-called "two-fluid" nozzles for air atomization of the fuel to insure ignition and continued combusion whe burning waste oil. Are you using one of these?

Bernie Katz

I am building my current burner using a beckett burner with a rotary vane pump and a siphon (air and oil) nozzle mounted into a heater block. The burner I built that ran last year also was a siphon nozzle although it wasn't a beckett, and the heater and compressor was external. I should have the new one ready to fire up in a few days.

Frankd20:

You most probably want to modify the nozzle. There was some time back a type of burner that was called a "low pressure burner". Instead of a high pressure pump delivering oil through an orifice (the nozzle), it had a low pressure pump that delivered the oil through a slit in a convex shaped "head" (if you picture a ball with a narrow slit cut out that had an arc length of about 45°, that is what the delivery surface looked like). The oil, exiting at low pressure would spread over the surface of the "head" where it would be atomized by the high speed air exiting just behind and around the head (high air velocity is important). This design could burn almost any oil including waste oil and used motor oil (the used motor is a no-no now because of the polluting contaminants present), over a wide range of viscosities cleanly and efficiently. I am not sure but would expect that a flame head (as used in current burners of the high speed flame retention head type) might help as well with the low pressure unit described.

You might also want to explore the use of ultrasonics as an aid to atomization, and/or alterations in the geometry of the burner head, firebox and flue opening, along of course with variations in the air to fuel ratio to achieve the best combustion. A meter to measure flue gases would be very helpful ( they cost as little as several hundred dollars, but typically closer to $1000 or more). Lacking a meter, a free-standing test setup would enable you to visually check combustion and how clean the flame is (a flame can look clean through the inspection port, but meanwhile be producing soot at the flue outlet.

Feel free to contact me if you want to chat specifics.

Greg

When I first started looking into this project ultrasonic was my first thought, but I didn't explore it much simply due to the cost, although I do think it has a lot of potential. I am not using a pressure nozzle, but instead a siphon nozzle based on the venturi effect which uses low pressure air and oil. At some point I also want to try a different nozzle configuration called a babington which uses the atomization effect seen over a whale's blow hole. In addition to these two I want to experiment with rotary cup nozzles, which will require a completely new burner build.

I have carried out some tests using a 50mm Ball with a 0.25mm hole. The tsts used Kerosine, kero/engine oil, veg oil, and kero/veg mix. I measured a temp of 380 degrees Celcius on the burner tube. air pressure was approx 1.5 Bar. The output flame was burning very clean.

Does anyone have a phone number for Waste Oil Recyclers in Modena, PA???

Greg and list:

Ultrasonics were tried for atomization some years ago, but nothing ever came of it. The slit type nozzle is used in some air atomizing burners. Years ago, Winkler and Williams (same company that makes Eureka vacuum cleaners) made low pressure burners with a maxium of just a few PSI at the nozzle. The nozzle was comprised of an outer shell with a conical inside end, with about a 1/8" hole at the tip of the cone. An inner piece fit against the cone, carried the oil in, and had slightly spiraled radial slits so the air would pull the oil out by the Bernoulli effect. Air from a vane pump was fed into the annulus around the oil-carrying center piece. These worked very well and could produce close to 14% CO2 on #2 oil with almost no soot.

Eventually, the common simpler high pressure atomizing burner became efficient once the flame retention head was invented. It is basically a "bluff body" which allows the onset of combustion to take place at rapid air velocity at the center hole in the head, but the velocity slows down immediately after exiting the head, with more air fed in through slits stamped in the head (it is usually stamped stainless). The retention time promotes more complete combustion, and allows about 12% CO2 with less than #1 soot reading. I believe the two fluid nozzle waste oil burners use flame retention heads as well.

With #2 oil, 15% CO2 is stoichiometric or very close to it.

Bernie Katz

The low pressure nozzle burners do indeed use retention heads, although are often different than the standard one. I fired up my burner lastnight and got a great flame using the retention head that came with the burner. The burner I made last year I made my own retention head out of SS that looked more like a turbine blade but it worked quite well. The design of the turbine retention head is used by Kagi in there waste oil burners, and I believe if you ask nicely they will sell you one.

Frankd20:

Yes, I meant to refer to a retention head (post #3) with my "flame head" reference to "as in high speed flame retention head burners", but I omitted the most important word: retention.

You are obviously pretty far along in experimenting/refining your burner. It would be useful, if you feel able to, to describe what you have found out so far to us interested readers.

Regards,

Greg

I am decently far along with this project, actually this weekend I started using it to heat my house on a limited experimental basis. As I mentioned I am using what is called a siphon nozzle. From the front this nozzle looks like a standard home heating oil nozzle. If you have the nozzle out you will see that it does not have the metal mesh on the back but instead has a stem with a small hole for the oil. You can find these types of nozzles at many hardware stores for use in a salamander type kerosene tube heater. The nozzle I use is a 0.5gph nozzle although it is easy to over or under fire it, but seems to burn cleaner if you over fire it a little. I machined a 6" x 2" x 1" aluminum block with two holes that run from the back through most of the length of it and then a hole in the front that the nozzle screws into which the holes from the back connect into. The block also has a hole in the back for a cartridge heater which is controlled to keep the block at around 180 to 190 deg. This block is installed in the flame tube with a line that comes out for oil at the standard place and an additional line for air. I use a rotary vane compressor to supply the air in the range of 7 to 20psi and I modified the standard oil pump to provide 3 to 10 psi of oil. The oil and air flows through the block to the nozzle so the nozzle gets hot oil and air. The flame from vegetable oil tends to be a little longer then home heating oil but when tuned is comparable in heat and smoke output. I built a heavy duty steel box that is about 2' long, lined with fire bricks and has an opening in the top far end for the gases to escape into the boiler. This box is designed so it can bolt in place of the door of my boiler so it basically extends the length of the fire box since the boiler was too small for me to feel safe. After firing this burner for about 20 mins the fire bricks glow a nice red, while the outside is just warm. I have run into some minor kinks in this project but nothing a little adjustment wasn't able to fix. So far I am rather happy with the way it is working.

frankd20:

Congratulations!

Preheating air and oil is a great idea.

Greg

Just wanted to say thanks first to frankd20. You've posted a lot of really good information and pictures. With regard to the retention head that you are using. Is that an F-12 head? Your using a firing rate of about .5 gph is that correct? I dont know if it would be the same but that firing rate with high pressure nozzles would use an F-0 retention head. Have you tried different head? Thanks again for sharing your experiences. I have an extra Beckett burner I'm starting to tinker with myself.

Hello

I don't know anything about burner oil systems as I live in a "natural gas heating" state, but I am comfortable with diesel engine fuel atomization as my specialty is running 200 ton engines on crude oil . . . . .and recently helped my daughter convert her Ford Power Stroke to veggie.

Maybe Greg G. can correct some things below if he sees a mis-statement, but I'll try:

Diesel theory; 15:1 stoichiometric air fuel ratio is optimum. To arrive at this I try for 2 micron droplets of fuel in injector designs. This gives the oil drop lots of exposure to air in hopes of having more O2. i.e. A single 2 micron drop in a shoe box has more air (O2) exposure than a 6" diameter drop in the same shoebox. This is accomplished with 20,000 - 30,000 psig injection pressures ripping fuel through orifices. The fuel needs to be about 4-12 cSt viscosity at the injector tips or we will blow off the injector tips. Diesel fuel is about 2 cSt so we are OK there. For veggie oil, we need to heat it to reduce viscosity. For some crude oil types I need to super heat it since I begin at over 1000 cSt at times.

In crude oil pipelines, we use direct fired crude oil burners to heat crude oil to 100 cSt so we can pump it, and, we need to use steam to atomize the heavy crude oil. Not sure the exact process, but search "Direct fired heaters' and look for technology by Foster Wheeler, etc.

Not sure what we can learn from diesel theory, but there you have it.

George

Hi Dave ,

I am from Quebec , Canada and i have work on a version of oil burner for some time . I am close to perfect now... just added an old coffee maker by melita to heat my used oil.

It keep the tempreture at 60 Cellcius . I keep the water tank of the machine for the trial run ... up to now the best mix is B60 or 60% used canola from a local school's kitchen, it the most % i can get for the combustion.

Still some smoke from partial combustion.

Have you heard from similar project ?

Michel

Do you have some picture of your project, i have difficulty to visualise your system ?

I took some pictures of my setup over the weekend. I still consider this in the experimental stage so I am always changing things. I hope these pictures help explain the details of my system.

This is the heater block installed in the burner with the flame tube and retention head removed. The electrodes are mounted on the top, if you look between the electrodes you can see the thermocouple to control the block temperature to 150deg F. On the far side of the block that you can't see is a thermal snap switch that opens at 300deg F in case the block overheats it will shut down the system.

Heater block removed from the burner.

Rear view of the heater block, The middle tube is for the oil, the hole on the right is for the air, and the hole on the left is for a 450W 1/2" cartridge heater.

Siphon nozzle from Hago, oil goes in the back, and air goes between the SS outer part and the brass inner part.

I have the fire box pulled out, you can see part of the flame in the back of the box. The burner is burning 100% used vegetable oil, no home heating oil or anything else is mixed in.

Looking down into the box you can see the flame is not that big, and that there is very little smoke coming out of the box. Most or all of the oil is burned, any that isn't gets burned as soon as the fire bricks heat up and glow red.

I hope that answers your questions as to the details, if you have any other questions as to the workings of this let me know. The only thing I didn't show in these pictures is my air pump which is a small rotary vane pump. I am currently building the air pump to connect onto the burner so it runs off the burner motor.

Thancks

I am not familiar with this kind of burner , you have air mix with oil ? Mine use only pressurise oil. Could it be possible to have pictures of the other side of the burner including the brand name of it ?

One good tips is : Use a nozzel who have more Gls per hours ... trying to save oil isn't good because the hole is too narrow for that kind of oil. I'd switch my 1.5 gls for a .75 and it goes worst after it , i had to get back with my old nozzle for better results.

Bye

Michel

Here are some more pictures, the ones I put first are really the heart of the system. The preheater block in the flame tube and the nozzle are what makes it go. The oil and air flow through the block and meet at the nozzle. This is not a pressure system. I am using the standard oil pump but it has been modified to pump oil at only 3 psi. The air pressure required is about 7 to 15 psi. The nozzle actually pulls a vacuum on the oil so you could feed it with a constant level tank and not require an oil pump. I use the oil pump because it is easier to pull from a tank and gives me more range of adjustment. My nozzle is a 0.6gph although it is easy to over or under fire it, my guess by fuel use is I fire it at about 0.8gph The oil hole in the nozzle is larger then a pin hole, it is about the size of a paper clip wire, so clogging is less of a problem. This system does not work like a conventional pressure system, despite it looking very similar when assembled. What it does do is provide better atomization of the oil, giving a cleaner flame.

This is the assembled burner from above, my temperature controller is the black box on the left. At the moment I have a modified lamp dimmer that acts as an adjustable SSR to let me control the wattage.

Beckett burner backside, this is an AF burner but thats just what I had on hand.

business end in the box ready to fire.

Nozzle dissembled, sorry its a bit blurry.

Thanks for the pictures,

I'll ask around for that kind of nozzle, my rig is not compatible with it. I'll need more détails on the part with electrodes and nozzle including the element ( witch not apear on those pictures ) .

Is that part standard on your burner hear is mine ( it is standard in Quebec):

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

And hear your's :

I believe , it is the missing link on my machine to perform well.

You seam to be on the same time frame of me, where do you come from ?

Bye

Michel

I took a lot more pictures of various parts to help explain more detail. For starters the heater block that you show as the difference is not something that came with my burner. I spent the better part of a weekend drilling and tapping a 6" x 2" x 1" aluminum block to make that part. It is the key and really the hart of the system, although the other parts are also important. The original part on my burner looks almost exactly like yours and I have a picture of it here. I have also included in my pictures the cartridge heater, and more details of the nozzle. As an added bonus I have included pictures of my air pump that is currently in progress. The detail of the holes in the block aren't so important, the main idea is just to get the oil and air to go through the length of the hot block and meet at the nozzle, the rest is up to you.

Above is a blurry picture of the front of the block without the nozzle.

Half inch 450W cartridge heater, this goes into the hole in the back of the block and provides the heat, I bought this on ebay.

Here is a nozzle I bought at a local true value hardware store, as you can see it is for a forced air heater as pictured. I believe this nozzle is really a Delevan siphon nozzle. I currently am running a Hago siphon nozzle, I have run the one pictured, it worked fine and provided about the same firing rate.

More details of the nozzle that aren't blurry this time, you can see how big the holes are in it, and also the back where the oil and air go in separately.

This is the original part that was in my oil burner that I replaced with my home made preheater block.

The air pump rotor used as a replacement in a forced air heater, purchased in Home Depot. I decided to use this part because the vanes wear out and need to be replaced about once a year, I wanted a part that was easy and cheap to get.

Detail drawing of how the rotary vane air pump goes together.

What I have so far of my rotary vane compressor that will mount between the oil pump and the burner housing. I still have some more holes to drill, but its getting there. These parts have been made out of a 1/2" x 3" x 3" aluminum stock, and two 1/8" thick plates.

I hope that answerers your questions, btw I am in NY, and it is quite cold now. I will not be taking any other pictures of the inside of the burner at the moment as my house would cool down quickly.

Dan

Thanks a lot,

It is cold too in Quebec, -24 C and with the wind we had a record of -43 C...

I think it is clear enought for me, i know now that , i have a lot of work to do -:))

Thanks again for your time

Bye

Michel

The following article appeared in a company newsmagazine. I am seeking comments/suggestions about how I might begin the initial steps toward accomplishing what this guy has done where he works at the hotel where I work.

I understand that with often minimal modification, most furnaces and boilers which are designed to burn No. 2 heating oil can be made to burn filtered, preheated waste vegetable oil. I have the mechanical inclination and the drive to put a little work into it, but I am seeking advice on first steps. I would be interested in the modification as described below, where half waste vegetable cooking oil is used along with half regular fuel oil.

Thanks for any input.

Hotel Reuses Oil After eating an evening meal of fish and chips, tourists in Juneau who retire for the night at the Westmark Baranof Hotel may find themselves warming their toes in a room heated in part by the oil used to cook their food. When the town's incinerator closed three years ago, businesses were left with no legal way to dispose of used vegetable oil other than ship it south at considerable expense.

Baranof's Chief Engineer Andy Krone came up with the idea of using cooking oil for heating. He modified the hotel's heating system, found a way to store the oil, mix it with fuel oil and then warm and filter it for use in the burners. The heat is odorless and guests in the hotel do not notice any difference in ambiance.

The Baranof creates a mix of half vegetable cooking oil and half fuel oil. The hotel burns up to 2,000 gallons of oil a month and typically uses 10,000 gallons of cooking oil in a year. By using cooking oil, the hotel has reduced the amount of fuel oil used by 9,000 gallons a year.

Environmental benefits from using the cleaner vegetable oil include fewer sulphur compounds released into the atmosphere, recycling of carbon already in the system and a reduction in carbon output.

"Local businesses are quite pleased to have us pick up their used cooking oil." said Steve Hamilton, general manager at the Baranof Hotel. The Westmark Baranof remains the only location in the city to legally dispose of cooking oil.

Thanks Squll for the follow up, is there any magazine on the subject (commercial). Could it be possible to have this article scan ?

Where is that hotel ( Conty / city)?

Thanks again for your insite!

Mike

Hi, Frank, last year I put together a syphon type kit which worked ok and ran it for a couple of months on a Weil-Mclain boiler. I was having drip off problems which caused a lot of gumming of the nozzle end retencion head. The fire box on this boiler is very small and it was getting unburned oil on the sides of it. I liked your idea of installing the burner on an extended fire box, but I couldn't figure out how the hot gases from your steel fire box are directed to the inside of the boiler when the opening shown on your pictures is located on the top of the box. Shouldn't the gases come out through the end of the box opposite to the burner? Please clarify for me. Could you send a picture of the fire box attached to the boiler? Thanks for any help

Hi, Michel

I Live in Montréal and wish to do the same cause this is a very cheap of doing this.

Do you just put your oil in the cofee maker premix at 60% and send the outpout

directly to the main blower? Did you modifie the nozle?

Please reply me on my email or i wont know if you answer.

Thanks!

Yves

Allo Yves,

Je présume que c'est ta langue ; pour ta question: j'ai pris un jet de plus fort galonnage mais l'idée est de porté l'huile a une température qui place sa viscositée au meme niveau que celle du diesel.

J'ai laché le projet faute de temps mais les derniers test étaient bon, il faux toutefois une surveillance constante pour palier aux manque de test scientifique. Tu joue quand meme avec une source potentiel de foyer d'incendie, il ne faux pas oublier ce détail.

Bonne chance dans ton projet, si ta d'autre question et que tu préfère me parler directement, je suis de Rimouski.

Bye

Michel

Re bonjour,

Juste pour te mentionné que c'est bien moi, j'avais oublier de me loguer.....

Pour ton courriel, je n'en ais pas trouvé pour te répondre directement, j'espère que tu repasse voir ta réponse.

Bye

Michel

If you are using the furnace in your house, you should have little problem using preheated veggie oil, but the supply tank must also be inside the house. another hint that might help is to increase the presure of your pump. There is a cap nut on the pump opposite (across the pump) to the line from the pump to the gun nozzle. Remove this cap and there will be a screw which you will turn clockwise. you can do this with the burner running to view the effects thru the sight hole. too much will give smoke. You can also connect a guage in the line between the pump and the gun to get accurate info.

good luck

frankd20 do u mind telling me what size tap you used for the nozzle. thanks

Sorry for the delay, I haven't looked at this post in a while. Anyhow below is the info on the nozzle tap along with some places to get it. In addition to this I discovered by accident that the threads are the same as is used on copper compression fittings, although im not sure that will be of any use. Sometime in the next month or so I am going to put up a post in workbench creations on some improvements to this project I made. Mainly putting the air pump in place of the oil pump, and driving the oil pump at a much slower constant speed.

The tap is a

9/16"-24 NEF(National Extra Fine) Right-Hand Threads

http://www.mcmaster.com/
McMaster Carr part #
Part #2595A852 same as part# 2595A823 $29.28

http://www.use-enco.com
http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?PMAKA=891-4945
Enco
Model #891-4945 $12.16

http://mscdirect.com
http://www1.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNSRIT?PMPXNO=1735895&PMT4NO=13958476
MSC #: 04845236 $16.41

http://www.wttool.com
http://www.wttool.com/product-exec/product_id/24787
Part #0307-0057 $6.65

I have been running my oil boiler beckett burner on straight waste veggie oil for about a month with a standard oil nozzle im not saying with out some tinkering but with success. It is also a crued system but i have a 55 gallon drum setting on my radiator that i laid on its side and im heating the oil to about 125 degrees and i have a standard oil filter and i have all of this insulated. I have just purchased a nozzle line heater to mount on the nozzle tube to keep the oil heated during the off cycle that has ben my only problem is if it is off to long it wont lite. The only other catchto it is i have to change nozzle and filter ever two weeks. but i will do that for the simplicity of the system. the nozzle and filter costs me around 6 dollars. Oh i also turned the pump pressure all the way up never checked the accual pressure though.so i mguessing the oil going into the burner tube is around 140 again never accually checked it. but the line going into the casing will almost burn you. I hope this helps somebody ask any questions i will try to answer. Oh ya i filter my oil down to 1 micron and i do this with the oil heated to anything above 90 degrees.

how do you heat the oil?

thanks

john

my email address is jashuzinkevich@yahoo.com

Cool set up, heating your oil to about 135° to 155° F will help smooth the system performance.

Heating the oil to above 180°F will cause the oil to self filter in that impurities will be pushed to the bottom of tank. You can place several valves vertically on tank and pour off the clear oil.

You may find the electric element type heaters used in electric hot water heaters will screw into one of the drums bung holes.

Keep us up dated

i would be more than interested in hearing your position on this alternative heating source, please contact me , at blairrcs@hotmail.com thanks, Blair

For anyone that has been watching this thread, I am posting a new blog entry on this topic which will contain new designs and details.

Hello

I am interested! What nozzle did you use? What psi did you set it at? I tried this with a spare burner and it didnt fire.

Hi all in the discussion. I currently sell Babington Atomizing Nozzles with a 0.02" Hole in them and an NPN connection on the inlet side.

See link below for details

http://alternative-energy-shop.blogspot.com/2008/02/babington-atomizing-burner-nozzles-for.html

or visit www.HomeBrewPower.co.uk and click on the shop link at the top of the page.

They are pretty amazing items and will burn (Atomize) practically ALL waste oils.

All the best

Andy Mahoney

www.HomeBrewPower.co.uk

Hi Chris,

Let me know how that 1 Micron Filtered/dewatered vegi oil I supplied you with runs. My car has 1,000 gallons of the straight vegi on it and is running better than ever.

Scott 908-832-9096

Join the altfuelsfurnace group at Yahoo. They are a moderated group with lots of good information. You can write to jessejames49us@Yahoo.com about joining. He is the list moderator.

BernieK

im running a becket gun that i adapted to a syphon system . try alternatefuelfurnace.com , great forum , a member named craig kepner sells a kit with all the parts to convert a presure gun to syphon . it takes a little experimenting but i got my system running and it took another month of tinkering to get it to burn clean and run and start up faithfully without gumming electrodes and retention head . its a lot to learn i would read alt... website up and down then ask ques. i also blend fuel for my trucks , 2 yrs now , 1st yr heating my house scott

Hello Frank Harvey here I have some ideas to heat the house but only in my head I have made equipment to process WVO into SVO and have been running my farm equipment for a while now svo but have a few bumps in the road when cold .

I have a good mind and today started to look on line for good ideas I could use or mod to fit my needs .

I have a good supply of wvo I do use some to start my wood fire It work well for that HDirkx2@aol.com

Has anyone experimented with changing the viscosity of the veggie oil through simple chemicals, heating and then filtering to lessen or eliminate burner modifications? I feel that having to keep the oil warm is the weakest link in the process and believe this can be overcome with some experimentation. I know the oil can be changed with Lye and other chemicals to make biodiesel but I am trying to find a more environmentally friendly and less complicated way to convert the oil. I am starting to experiment with this but any suggestions or ideas would be very helpful. This could be a very viable business should someone come up with a way to transform veggie oil to more resemble no. 2 oil in a easy and environmental way. Steve

You have to check out Kingbuilt.com, it is no joke these are legitimate furnaces and boilers, nearly completely smokeless, and very efficient. They burn vegetable oil, waste or fresh, motor oil, gear oil, trans oil, you name it, this burner will burn it. The amazing thing is that the burners leave no soot behind, you would never have known that waste oil was burn in them. The burners never need to be cleaned like many of the old oil burners. I am an eye witness to this product, check it out if you have questions call the number on the website, ask for Todd or Ryan, great guys super helpful and knowledgeable. Definitely not bs artists. I also know of several business' who say this is the best oil burner on the market. They also have a product called the AgOilPress, it's purpose is for taking commodities like soybeans, canola, sunflowers, and others, pressing the oil out and using that oil to run as bio fuel in diesel's and for home and shop heating. Check this out to at agoilpress.com But don't just take my word for it check it out man, I know I am sure glad I did.