My filtration system

[Beyond Biodiesel]

We've talked in the past about keeping the gasoline percentage below 30 to keep the ethyl alcohol in check. Do you think that " washing " the gas diluted oil with regular water would be a good practice as it should bind with the ethonol and sink to the bottom easily? I also wonder what effect that would have on dissolved solids in suspension.

I do not know if water washing will work for either removing the alcohol, or the carbon. It would be nice if it did. I have heard people propose it, but I have not heard of anyone trying it. It would be a serious mess to clean up if it did not work.

It is true that to make alcohol blend with petroleum distillates to make what was originally called gasohol, a cosolvent had to be used. The cosolvents are generally acetone, or some other polar solvent. The interesting thing that blenders observe is when our alcohol containing gasoline is added to any waste oil that contains water, the water will precipitate out of solution rapidly. So, it is doubtful that water washing will work to remove the alcohol from the gasoline.

Instead I think alcohol-free gasoline can be found at wholesale fuel depots. You will probably have to buy it by the barrel.

 

[bigugh20]

Some controlled tests may be in order. If this worked it would be better than having to buy, store, and blend other more hazardous chemicals. It'll be a couple of days before I get started.

 

[oddshot]

Yes, I too find gasoline is very effective at removing water, and radiator fluid from motor oil. It also seems to make the dirt fall right out, if there is enough gasoline in the blend.

Over the last year or so I've been mixing gasoline with WMO using compressed air to agitate the mix. Not only does it seem to speed up the cleaning/de-watering, it also is very handy when finally blending in a thinning agent (gasoline, kerosene, etc) to adjust final specific gravity of product for use. I use a large tote as a blending tank. This allow me to take samples from both the top and the bottom of the batch.

I just use a length of pipe with a shut off which allows air bursts into the mix. It doesn’t cost anything but time to do. A quick read of this Pulsair handout will show you what I'm talking about. Please note that I don't think the shape of the bubble makes a lot of difference for our purposes.

http://www.lindeus.com/internet.lg.lg.usa/en/images/Pulsair Main Brochures138_32203.pdf

This process *might* be useful in helping getting ethanol (or other alcohols) to mix with water and drop out of the WMO.

 

[John S-B]

Here's some pics of my setup, which I hope to have done in the next week or two, before it starts getting cold. Both of the drums are settling tanks, the one on the left is my improved version. I let most everything settle in 5 gal. buckets (sealed) for at least a few months. Then it goes throught a 100 micron Duda mesh filter sitting on the funnel. There's a round ring magnet that all the oil flows over to catch any small metal fragments, and then into the drum where it settles again. The hose on the bottom is to drain any water and waste particles. The bucket is set up for sock filters. I'm building a shelf for them to sit on so they gravity feed into the next bucket. There will be four of them, 10, 5, 1 and 0.5 micron filter sizes. I'll have a hand pump from the settling drum that feeds a copper pipe that will go into the top bucket. I'll have a section of pipe that will change direction left to right in a square pattern about a foot wide so I can put a heater in front of it to heat the oil before it goes into the filters to reduce viscosity. I put valves on the bucket drains so I can stop the flow if needed. The bottom bucket will then be taken out of the rack to be emptied into a clean WMO storage drum. I just cut a 3 1/2" hole in the lid for the Duda sock filter, and a hole in the bottom for a bulkhead fitting (from TSC) in the bottom with a valve and adapters from Ace Hardware. I got the buckets for free, I like the slogan on them, it's motivating.

 

[skinnyR1]

The oil will gravity feed through .5 micron?

 

[John S-B]

The oil will gravity feed through .5 micron?

Well maybe not fast, but yes. It will be thinned a bit and heated also.