oil mixed with alcohol

[FrankUSMC]

Very stupid quiston. At work we get in clean oil that is mixed with alcohol. It comes from a clean room shop, that uses oil and alcohol on aircraft parts. It is mainly oil, but you can smell the alcohol mixed in it. We get about 1, 55 gallon drum a mounth.
We can not put it in with our recycle oil because it has to high of flash point, and the company that takes our used oil will not take it. Now, we have to pay a hazardous waste company to take it.
Could it be used in the duece or will the alcohol eat up every thing?
I can find out with the flash point is.
One of the few, Frank

 

[Opie]

What kind of effort would be required to encourage the alcohol to evaporate? Bolt a drill with a paint stirring propeller to the barrel and run it for a few hours? (Chemical People: Does it even matter?)

Low-cost fuel is good (if it doesn't cause the motor to die...).

 

[rdixiemiller]

Don't know what effect some alcohol would have in a diesel engine. I guess not too much shouldn't be an issue, as alcohol is used to keep fuel lines from freezing up.

 

[Recovry4x4]

Bjorn runs his truck with unwashed bio. It has a methanol content. It'll clean eveything up for sure.

 

[cranetruck]

With the veggie oil and diesel in the tank as well, the percentage of methanol is probably only 1%.

Frank, you may be able to boil off the alcohol, it has a low boiling point, no more than about 150°F.

 

[WillWagner]

If the FDC is still hooked up, don't see a reason you couldn't run it, just do a 75 to 25% mix w/diesel, and it should ne fine. The diesel and oil will have enough lubricity to not hurt things. It doesn't separate in the drum does it?

 

[gringeltaube]

Re: RE: oil mixed with alcohol

If the FDC is still hooked up, don't see a reason you couldn't run it, just do a 75 to 25% mix w/diesel, and it should ne fine. The diesel and oil will have enough lubricity to not hurt things. It doesn't separate in the drum does it?

If it didn't separate in the drum it still could happen after adding diesel to the mix. So better try it first in a bottle. If the mixture stays cloudy, it's the first sign!

 

[Pinkie]

RE: Re: RE: oil mixed with alcohol

put the mixture in a black 55 drum, make a vent so rain water can't get in and set it in the sunshine for a day or so, should get all the alcohol out.

 

[cucv11]

Re: RE: oil mixed with alcohol

With the veggie oil and diesel in the tank as well, the percentage of methanol is probably only 1%.

Frank, you may be able to boil off the alcohol, it has a low boiling point, no more than about 150°F.

Yes that is true. The alcohol will burn off but you will want to worry about the viscosity of your oil. Will it be thick enough to protect the motor? Lets say you add 10 quarts of the stuff will you be left with 7 once the alcohol burns off? See what i am saying? I am sure it would be one he!!l of an engine degreaser but i am not to sure i would want to run that for 3k miles.

 

[JDToumanian]

The alcohol will burn off but you will want to worry about the viscosity of your oil. Will it be thick enough to protect the motor?

Are we talking about putting this in the fuel tank or the crankcase? I'm for burning it and agree with Will - Dilute with diesel and go for it, as long as the alcohol isn't separating in the drum...

Jon

 

[FrankUSMC]

I should have written that it is for the fuel tank, not the motor.
One of the few, Frank

 

[cranetruck]

Any idea of the percentage of alcohol? What kind of alcohol, ethanol, methanol...? How clean is the oil, does it need to be filtered?
Is it worth the trouble?

 

[ken]

I would supplement diesel with it. If your worried only run about 10 to 15% added mix. 85 to 90% diesel will burn just fine. People use alcohol up north to deice fuel any way. I can't rember how hot but bjorn once posted fuel tank temps. If i rember right they were well over 100 deg. Mabye that's enough to boil it off.

 

[cranetruck]

In the summer time, expect fuel temps of about 120°F just from the return flow, which is about 1/2 gallon/minute (this is from my fuel temp gauge).
Not enough to boil off the alcohol, but some evaporation will probably occur.

 

[houdel]

This is just a shrewed, wild eyed guess here, but it is going to depend on the type of alcohol. If is isopropaonal alcohol, i.e., the good stuff which de-ices diesel, I'd mix it to no more than 10% alcohol. If it is methanol or ethanol, I'd limit the mixture to 5% alcohol. No solid scientific data here, just my gut feel. You may want to even halve these amounts, I haven't seen any scientific data to support this reccommedations.

 

[OPCOM]

if it tends to separate, then it would be easy to draw off, but that's probably not the case.. if put in the tank during a time when the engine has been running, and running it till it's gone, the constant agitation and circulation should keep it mixed. Maybe the people in charge of the process that amkes it can tell you how much alky is in there.

 

[wreckerman893]

Let me add this caveat to your source of oil.
From 1995 until 2002 I worked as a driver for a Haz Waste processing company.
Once that 55 gallon drum has a HAZMAT label with a Generator ID, name and date on it, it becomes Hazardous Waste and can only be moved by a licensed Haz Waste hauler.

If you are caught with that labeled drum on your vehicle or in your possesion you will go to jail and be charged by state and federal officials with illegal transportation and storage of Hazardous Materials.

Since that material has been declared to be a hazadous waste by your company it cannot be stored on site without a label.

Your company is required to keep detailed records of the storage, transportation and disposal of all Haz and non-haz waste streams it generates. It is tracked from cradle to grave and the records are subject to inspection at any time by state or federal agencies.

I know that it seems a waste to let good fuel go out the door as HAZ waste but the rules were set up to protect us from incidents such as Love Canal in NY and Times Beach in Mo.

Sometimes the powers that be go over board but a few bad apples have put the onus on all the businesses that do right.