Step 1 of running my diesel for nearly nothing

SB118 · 14 Nov 2005 at 17:13

penski said:
Furthermore, find out where the chippys buy it wholesale - I can virtually guarentee they pay less than 43p/l

Buy it wholesale, as it's for a works van, claim back the VAT, pay the fuel duty...would probably work out at about 50-60p/litre and you wouldn't have to filter anything.

*n

50-60p/litre, after Duty payment of 47p/l, would mean the oil cost between 3 & 13p/l, where can i get some!!

SB118 · 14 Nov 2005 at 22:15

The fun part of this system is when you don't jam the outlet pipe into location properly and the system drips just over a gallon of oil over the worktop and shed floor in the space of 12 hours, oops!

SB118 · 15 Nov 2005 at 10:19

Pretty much any vegtable oil will do.

Bulk purchased oil isn't usually that much cheaper than the loss leader stuff you can buy at tesco/asda/etc

SB118 · 22 Nov 2005 at 13:53

happytechie said:
I presume that the local chippy has to pay to dispose of their waste oil? I suspect that if you ask them they will give you the waste for free.

My big gripe with all this is that the majority of diesels pumps are selling fossil fues derived diesel. If the enviromentally friendly, carbon neutral veggie, cheep alternative is as good or better than the stuff from the north sea why aren't all the trucks / busses / trains / power plats etc buring the bio diesel?

HT

I know one or two chippys that actually sell their waste on to bulk buyers, who then sell it on to fuel makers, which partially defeats the idea of cheap fuel.

As for not selling much organic fuel at the pumps, i'm sure the big buck oil companies have nothing to do with it ....

SB118 · 22 Nov 2005 at 14:58

Ultra_Extreme said:
Spose best way is to stick in a mix for long MW journeys and sod the taxman and just make sure its only regular pump diesel around town etc. But you are correct, dont mess with HMRC+E or any royal body. Rapist gets 10-15 out in 8, rob the mail train and get 60 without parole......says it all

Heh, by the time you read this, C&R have your ip addy, isp account details, home address, reg number, credit card number, eye colour and inside leg.

Feel free to run with non-duty paid fuel

"I know what you're thinking, did we clamp and crush 6 cars or was it only 5? Do ya feel lucky punk? Well do ya?"

SB118 · 22 Nov 2005 at 18:52

atpbx said:
...you can also buy 1000 litre pallets of premanufactured bio diesel for 95p per litre from a load of loony hippies off ter interweb.

Linky

SB118 · 22 Nov 2005 at 21:11

Ultra_Extreme said:
The point is how easily can u do it?

if you have:
Access to lots of oil
Space to set up a filter system
Vehicle set up to use it reliably and easily
Time to monitor and run it.

Geting oil is easy enough, take to a few takeaways and collect from them once a week.
Space is dependant on how much oil you've got hold of, you need to leave it to settle so the water can drop out. Filtering doesn't need much room, my setup is just disorganised

If you pick the right vehicle, you don't need any alterations. Else a few hundred quids worth of bits can sort you out.
Time is the killer, waiting for the stuff to settle, drawing off the good oil, filtering. Finding the oil STILL has water in it, repeat.

SB118 · 5 Dec 2005 at 10:48

Got hold of some new filters last week, bucket type, 600micron rated to start with. Pour a load of used oil in, then leave for roughly 12 - 18 hours to settle. (cold filtering takes ages, but does improve the quality of fuel for cold weather usage)

Sort of puts you off going to the chippy though ..

New bigger pump, and a better final settling tank.

Bigger tank with a high placed outlet (tried 1/2", flow was pap, went up to 1" pipe), means that any free water that get's into the system should drop out before it gets into the filtration side of things.

SB118 · 5 Dec 2005 at 11:25

Store it in the shed, let the crystals form, then filter it, makes for even better cold starts.

SB118 · 5 Dec 2005 at 11:32

you can get an inline 1 micron filter from machine mart for about 15 quid, you can either gravity filter it, or pump it through. Gravity is for free

SB118 · 5 Dec 2005 at 12:06

If it's properly processed it shouldn't have anything left to filter, but cold filtering (outside) will get rid of anything that settles out in low temperatures (depending on fedstock used to make the BioD, the gelpoint can be very different)

SB118 · 5 Dec 2005 at 20:22

Toy time

woohoo, been playing with the blowtorch today, managed to knock up my first heat exchanger

(and i'd like to go on record and say that salt is an absolute ##### to rinse out!)

The oil coil, fuel flows from the tank to the filter & pump, through the coil, which is wrapped around this ...

the 15mm stubs are the feed for the coolant system, just needs fitting in between the waterpump and interior heater matrix. I used 22mm tube for the body, to carry plenty of water (water = heat) The other 8mm tube running the length of the heater is to heat the return fuel line (the fuel pump always pushes more fuel than you need), so you can heat the fuel that is sat in the tank.

It's not pretty, but it leak tested ok, need to clean it up tomorrow, then pile on the solder.

Yes, it's chuffing huge, i had to borrow a pipe cutter a few days ago and i chopped the 22mm pipe to the wrong length, oops! On the other hand, it's not like i'm pushed for space under the bonet of a transit

SB118 · 6 Dec 2005 at 09:40

172gus said:
SB118, could you not put the heat exchanger into the oil rather than round the pipe. Just thinking it would have more effect. Kind of like a coil in a kettle.

You can, but you need to do it inside the fuel tank, as the 8mm pipe simply won't bend tightly enough without collapsing to fit it inside the tube. If you heat the tank, you still have a lot of cold fuel in the lines before it gets to the filter & pump.

SB118 · 3 Jan 2006 at 12:10

I must admit, i've had to fall back on pump diesel a few times over the alst few weeks, but that's down to engine problems (weak battery, engine design not having heaters, etc)

The veg oil goes quite thick in very cold weather, and at times actually forms a frozen crust in the same way a bucket of water left outside overnight will. Which makes it somewhat tricky to start!

Might need to fit a twintank soon

SB118 · 5 Feb 2006 at 12:12

I don't want to go handling nasty & corrosive chemicals right now, my shed doesn't have enough space for proper storage of the methanol. I've looked at running a biodiesel processor, but i don't have space right now. The hassle of titrating, mixing the sodium hydroxide & methanol, adding the correct quantity, mixing & and heating to 55 deg C, stirring for an hour or so, then drawing off the waste products. I can live with a couple of crabby mornings

Now i've got Dave i should be able to run the high melting point fats that i draw off during filtering, even less waste

SB118 · 5 Feb 2006 at 14:52

i know nothing said:
I think you should use the heat off Dave's exhaust to help heat your hot water for your house, your sand filled box, copper tube and a Danfoss recirculating pump should do the trick. A motorised 3 way valve and a controller ( a couple of relays) and off you go.

I've been trying to trick out a design for a heat exchanger, easiest on so far is to dip a length of the exhaust into a gert big water tub, need to find the sweet spot volume of water so that it doesn't cool too much over night, then we'll have heating in the morning too

Need to find the wattage of a central heating pump to fit into the circuit now too. :eek:

SB118 · 5 Feb 2006 at 14:53

teaboy5 said:
lol if anyone sees you going in and out of your shed with chemicals etc, they are gonna think your up to not good

*cough* meth lab *cough*