Wind/diesel installation....

[paul149]

Hey, don't knock it, the pics are great, very pleasing on the eye to watch someone's project come to life, all the very best of luck my head's full of ideal's- just getting them into actual reality is the hard bit-money-kids-work-life= all put there to slow you down!!!!!

[frotter]

Heh - thanks. Wind dropped now... just going out to make last check on the voltage... see if it will make it through the night. Impressed with the electron harvesting today though 

X

[frotter]

Hmm, yes there is life in this old thread yet...... Not had much time for 'developement' recently....
Currently attention is on the melting and filtering of lard for feeding the genny. This pic shows The Shed Formally Known As 'Eastern Europe' where i used to make real biodiesel. (untill stopped by extreme likelyhood of slight death due to explosion..). Small creatures (rats, mice - badgers?) had got in and made a bit of a mess......   
FILTH, DEGREDATION and SQUALOR. The three bedfellows of neglect. (or summat..)





Anyway - almost two whole days of shoveling rancid lard and cleaning mould later.... the new melting facility is established. This isnt a great photo but it shows the insulated (yes, with cardboard box, old duvet and rat-eaten blanket  ) 20 litre plastic container containing solid fat and 35mm copper pipe with 70w peltier heating element slid down inside to gently melt the fat overnight. Gets it to about 50-60 degrees C - plenty...





Once nice and runny it is pumped out from under the bench into the filtering 'system' via two trusty Facet fuel pumps running in parallel. Please note high tech 12volt power supply and giant plastic brewery bottle from local tip.





Thar she blows - liquid gold i tells ye! Ok it takes about 15 minutes to pump the 20 litres, but whos in a rush, hmmm?





Here is the joyous warm liquid trickling out of the tank connector cut into the bottom of the big beer thingy. The bag filter is from a pond/aquarium bod off of Ebay. Dunno how long it will be before it needs cleaning. Aint looking forward to that i can tell yer!!




Voila! - the fuel.
Mmmm - good enough to cook chips in! (er.... please the note scrupulous cleanliness of ALL my equipment  ) Dont worry - everything will be fiiiine......




Next time i xpect i'll show ye the chunky copper heated fuel pickup doodah that the genny will slurp through.
You lucky, lucky bstards!!

 

[stephen]

Frotter,
A few questions.
Am I correct that you use solid lard!.  If so how do you re melt the lard once it’s in the collection barrel.
With liquid WVO I let it settle and allow the yellow stuff settle, do you just filter the lot in one go.
I have 70+Ltrs filtered to 1 micron ready to go, but when I start up the Lister it will soon go down it. I can get hold of loads of solid stuff and keep it hot by using the heat from the Lister. i.e. a double coolant barrel (on inside the other). But as of yet you’re the only one daft or brave enough to use it.

Thanks
Stephen
 

[Amaterasu]

can I ask a stupid question?

Why lard, is it cheaper than WVO - surely you dont buy it in half kilo lumps from the local kwik e mart ?

[stephen]

Its Not a stupid question.  Most chip shops around us use solid type oil not veg oil.
I am sure Frotter finds the same!
 

[stephen]

Sorry if i have gone off thread i know it should be placed somehwere else.

[frotter]

Yeh - the yellow cheesy crud comes from my local chip van. Almost none of it is runny at ambient temp. It is, however, FREE. I have been running my pug boxer van off this stuff - twin tank system with heated copper lance/fuel pickup. Obviously you dont flick the switch unti yer sure the lard is slopping about....l

The filtered lard will set when cold. I intend to use this in my genny by keeping an insulated box near the unit with the mains heated pickup lance connected to flexible pipes beside this box. The 20 litre containers will be changed when empty for a full one rather than refilling the same tank with hot lard. The lance will sit in the lard keeping it gently just warm enough to run so that on switchover it will flow. The engine has a heat exchanger in the fuel line so the fuel will get hot pretty hot once running. This is how the system in my Pug works. I will post pics as the whole evil thing takes shape...... And yep the Pug ran really well on the lard once heated. Worst problem with that system was in the winter it only takes a little plug of set lard in the pipes to block 'em. I always had to pull the fuel pickup out of the container with the engine running to let it suck in some air to clear the lard circuit... then quickly switch back to main tank so the starting fuel loop was primed with runny veg.  Bit of a pain but it would do about 120 miles on 20 litres of really sh*tty looking gunk for absolutely free. 

[stephen]

Frotter,
You are very ingenious and brave.  As I have mentioned in a previous thread I have a biomass boiler so heating the gunk is not a problem. I experimented last night with some gunk and found a glass full of solid gunk goes sloppy and liquid when sat in a water jacket of 40 – 35c (started at 40 and cooled to 35). The water I have is around 85c.
If I blended my Veg oil with the solid stuff I should get something spreadable like utterly butterly.

Stephen

[frotter]

Only managed limited tinkering this week. Pleased to have received my spiffy new ammeter though! Now that is a proper looking instrument....
As i type this there is a nice steady westerly keeping that needle above 5 amps most of the time. One nice sustained gust of 15 amps. 
Having a bit of trouble checking the anchors and guylines as a pheasant has a brood of chicks at the base of the pole. Not a big bird but WAY scary when it rushes at you!!





I also managed to make up the heated fuel pickup for the generator. The Peltier element is a 90 degrees C job - only 30w. Hoping its enough to just keep a melted pool of lard inside the insulated fuel 'box' ready to be slurped....
Please note my super neat soldering......





Heres the whole thing - its about 350mm long.. bit of a beast aint it..?? I luv copper, me!
I'll try to get more tinkering at the weekend. Have to go to Romania next week - look out, the Cheeky Girls!



 

[knighty]

ohhhh.... I've been thinking about using the same stuff : (solid lard / tallow)

I make dog food at work where we chop off a load of fat and mealt it down (about 3000l a week!)

we get 9p/liter for it.....

but I figgure it's cheaper to run a small genny on that than it is to use mains elecy

more updates, more more more !

[frotter]

Been a nice windy week this week - spent lots of time standing in the 'Chernobyl' generator shed alternately looking at the turbine then the ammeter. Deeply satisfying when that needle swings up over 10 amps....
 on the subjuct of lard still - this long red doodah is a flexible heating element bought by the metre. 70 degrees C at 12 watts per metre. I am going to strap this to the lard feed to the gen and then lag it. This will stay permanently switched on so the lard will hopefully always run when needed. Just got it plugged in to test it. Gets toasty warm quite quickly - just like a hot water botty.




This is just ongoing mucking about with solenoid valves - i ought to have got a bit further than this but had some serious creosoting to do.....


mmmmmm, creosote..






Managed to pick this up on Ebay for about £60 - bargain! Probly come in handy when we start playing with pv panels.. 


Mmmmm, pv panels...


Got to go to Transylvania (no, really..) on Weds so dont think much will happen for a bit. Pfff.

Cya!  XX

[dan_aka_jack]

Hi Frotter,

Wow - you're doing some incredibly adventurous things!  Very good work.  And thanks loads for all the pics too.

I was wondering if you'd be at all up for letting me come and filming all of your brilliant work?  I'm planning to start making some little videos about alternative energy projects for distributing on the web (more info ).  It would be fantastic to document and describe your experiments in a few videos.

Thanks loads,
Jack

[frotter]

Hehe - wot - Frot on NavTV? yeah 'course!
Where do you live? I am in Devon, Exeterish...... although after tonight i will be in Transylvania for a few days. I will try and check in to have a look around but i dont know if the string telephone reaches there yet...

[dan_aka_jack]

Thanks loads for the really quick reply... and for letting me come round to Frotter Towers!

Oooh - Exeter is quite a trek.  I live in S.E. London ;-(...  Though not completely impractical (but slightly hypocritical of me to drive 400 miles whilst making a film about reducing CO₂ emissions!)

But... I'm planning to visit my Parents this summer (they spend Summers in Fowey in Cornwall) so maybe it would be best for me to combine my trip to Exeter with my trip to Cornwall... let me check when my folks are going to be in Cornwall.  Are there any dates during Summer that would be bad for you?

(Incidentally, I figure we should plan the filming in the public forum so others can suggest things they'd like to see filmed etc... or rather, maybe we should plan the details by e-mail so we don't take up other peoples' time (and bandwidth)... who knows... ;-)