Biodiesel: Would an Oil Filter Work?

Much better option is to filter the oil BEFORE putting it into the car's fuel tank. Paper towels and/or coffee filters + gravity overnight work wonders and provide a simple and cheap solution.

Have a look at the numerous sites and links on the internet regarding DIY powering a diesel engine car off used cooking oil. Necessary car modifications are actually quite minimal.

IMO, you better filter the fuel finer than the oil or you are going to eat injection pumps or injectors. These systems like very clean fuel.

I presume that you are using 2 tanks where you start on diesel and switch to WVO when it heats up. You should have seperate filters on each line. You need to heat the wvo by passing it through a heat exchanger and also heat the filter. You will need 2 valves and return bypass fuel back into circuit and send it into wvo tank when bleeding it of air.

I have more detailed instructions if you need it.

Hello songpoge:

You might find this useful. It is a thread I posted several months ago.

After watching the video (if it is still there) you will see the stuff you need to do this and the safety details. You can alter the way you do things as the video may not deal precisely with your question. Has to be worth looking though?

Take care, and good luck................

Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Europe mostly Posts: 1142 Good Answers: 26	Video explanation-How to make Bio-Diesel from cooking oil 09/26/2008 8:12 AM
	If you want to save of the running costs of your car try cooking oil. Firstly you must 'wash' it and this video explains how to get from cooking oil/Bio-Diesel. Listen to all the safety advice! Note: This video is nothing to do with me! I found and watched it and thought it may be of use to some people. This is pretty small scale though.

You need to make sure also that nowhere in your cars engine are seals that would be attacked by non-diesel fuels.......sadly many car manufacturers are most stupid in this area.....I could give you some very annoying experiences in this area.....some engines leak like sieves after using such fuels.....

Best of luck.

Do a little research on Biodiesel. Waste oil is not biodiesel until it goes through transesterification. Either route, you want to filter it before using or else you'll breakdown all the time due to clogged filters. The process of making Biodiesel will, clean, dry, and neutralize the PH of your oil. If you run WVO with a kit like on greasecar.com, you'll want to filter and maybe dry your oil. Heavily used cooking oil is acidic and will corrode your fuel pump and injectors. It's not mentioned anywhere to neutralize the PH, but I'd think it's a good idea.

What kind of vehicle do you have? This will tell you a lot about what kind of system to run.

Thanks for the Video link Babybear. A question I have that arose from the video, which I know is not your video is: What does one do with the water after "washing the Biodiesel? This water, I assume, has glycerine, soaps, etc. in it. Can it be re-used for the next batch of Biodiesel washing? Or does it need to be distilled or something to remove the not-so-pleasant components?

Thanks

The crude glycerin by-product has been a problem in commercial biodiesel production. "What do we do with it?" In large commercial operations, with economy of scale, it is acidified to neutralize the caustic catalyst and deactivate the foamy carboxylic acid soaps. The methanol is distilled off and recycled into more biodiesel batches. The carboxylic acids can be sepatated and recycled into biodiesel or animal feed, and the remaining material with water, glycerin and sodium sulfate or potassium sulfate (depending on the biodiesel catalyst, NaOH or KOH) is concentrated to 80-90% glycerin with the sulfate salt still present. This can be mostly filtered out. The resulting refined glycerin is golden amber when fresh. I've seen it darken with time. I suspect there is some aldehyde impurity, and a little sodium bisulfite might preserve the color better. This is an awful lot for the back yard tinkerer to do. Best bet is to save and give to a nearby commercial chemical company who is refining crude glycerin.

Hello wcfloyd:

I thank you for the Glycerin explanation. It made things a lot more understandable.

Having not even thought of making my own fuel, the last thing on my mind was how to get rid of a 'by-product', when I was not aware there was one!

Take care, and have a wonderful Holiday.......

Hello YoshP:

It seems wcfloyd has answered your question pretty well, for which I thank him, as the question has not cropped up before under this thread anyway.

Other than that, you could ask your local Council Environmental Health Dept, or the Water Works if they can accept it? It has to be worth a question to the Water Works? Save quite a bit of cost and work.

I thank you for even thinking of it. I didn't! But it is not something that you should be throwing in the sewer. Though it well get dealt with eventually.............the oil will block the pipes 'down stream' of your place.

I thank you for the reply post..........

Good luck.............

Let the oil set a while then syphon off of the top. Heat then let set again then use www.davcotec.com