[q]The whole idea of declaring used motor oil a hazardous substance came about because people were disposing of real hazardous substances, such as PCB’s from transformers, by mixing them into used motor oil, this caused so many troubles for the fed regulators that they said “What the heck, we’ll just class ALL used oil as a Hazardous Waste, that will take care of the problem of us trying to prove that the oils are hazardous, and make them (That’s you and me folks) prove that it isn’t” Can we move along now? You can’t get used motor oil from your local garage, you have to prove the oil is NOT hazardous, and the regulatory hoops you have to jump through are designed to make it as difficult as possible. [/q]
[a]
Because of the problems associated with waste motor oil as a result of over zealous Federal Bureaucrats, why not switch to waste vegetable oil? Burning the stuff directly in a suitable heater/furnace must be better than mixing it with methanol and caustic soda, and using it as biodiesel. At least in a combustion process, you have the opportunity to utilize the bulk of the heat energy, rather than just 25 to 35% of it as in an automotive application. Interesting to note, that even for small industrial diesel engines (Hatz, Lombardini, Robin, Yanmar etc) in the 5 to 15hp size, that the fuel efficiency can be as high as 35%. With water cooling, additional heat energy could be recovered from the cooling circuit. Now all we need to do is make this type of engine a little less fussy on its fuel type, so that raw waste veg oil (WVO) can be burnt directly.[/a]
[a]
I think the single biggest problem with alternative energy is all the misinformation, fear mongering, untruths, and factoids.. Real world testing by me indicates you can indeed burn RUG at a blend of about 15 percent to lighter WMO without adverse affects. Chemistry and physics leads us to learn about such things as vapor pressures, heat of vaporization, free radicals and chaos theory which helps us understand why a minimal amount of RUG will not instantly explode when mixed with WMO and burned in a furnace.
However, some basic testing shows the nozzles plug every other time you try to start the furnace because the carbon “clumps” in the nozzle on shut down. Therefore, minimal changes in hardware does not work but rather requires changes to the siphon setup which makes the conversion complicated.
My dream is to come up with a furnace which burns WMO, veggie oil, and glycerin with very minimal emissions, and is made from new parts readily available for under 100 dollars. The Rogers burner is really neat, and I believe I understand how it works. I would like to take several of his ideas, and some of my own and try to “invent” something new. And give the idea to the world free.[/a]
[a]
Real world testing by me indicates you can indeed burn RUG at a blend of about 15 percent to lighter WMO without adverse affects. Chemistry and physics leads us to learn about such things as vapor pressures, heat of vaporization, free radicals and chaos theory which helps us understand why a minimal amount of RUG will not instantly explode when mixed with WMO and burned in a furnace. Ya got me there Doug. I have none of that training or skills. I did ask the gent that runs the forum on WMO furnaces “why don’t you ever discuss WMO and RUG blending”. His experience is extensive on the subject and while I doubt he has the chem and physics background(for some reason) he was cautious in the extreme. His answer, if memory serves, and it fails ever so more frequently these days, is that everybody trying these things isn’t “extremely quick” and anything rich in RUG is a potential disaster. Especially considering the skill set of those interpreting the process. I couldn’t agree more with you that RUG WMO blending would work in a furnace… that is why I asked the question of the “expert”. To me it now seems pedestrian that if you somehow manage to inject a RUR blend into a hot furnace chamber in a operation such as a “hot restart” you would be dealing with RUG vapors that would offer something less that a controlled burn. The longer you pushed air and unignited fuel into that environment the closer you would get to an OMG situation. With just a second or so delay on the ignition you would probably scatter your furnace all over the basement and wake the cat. NOW IT IS PEDESTRIAN! When I thought of it it seemed plausible. I do intend this to be flip and funny. Hope we share a sarcastic sense of humor. Sarcasm is supposedly the “wit of the master”. While I ain’t him, I am a “free radical” of sorts. [/a]
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