New(ish) CHP in Scotland, botching and learning!

[michiel]

Hello,

After about 2 years of following this forum, relatively quiet, with the odd input, and learning all the time, something happened this morning at 7am, which has spurned me into starting this thread about my Lister based CHP setup.




OK, stop sniggering, I'm sure it will have happened to more Lister owners out there.
Topped up the oil this morning, started engine, and got spayed with oil!!,..... at 7am on a sunday morning.     
NOT AMUSED  especially as on sunday morning I usually get back in bed for a cuddle!!

Oil sprayed all over wall, ceiling and myself.

Forgot to close off oil filler !!

[michiel]

My CHP is the following;

A Lister CS6/1, ex Start-O-Matic, stripped, rebuilt and matched with new head , a ST5, 5kW 1ph.
Runs on WVO and happily runs at 2.2kW for 10 hrs per day.
Approx 4/5 kW hot water as well.

[michiel]

SOM was bought for £250 last year in Aberdeenshire, after a tip-off from Ken B.
Altenator was seised, and showed signs of being burnt out, so new head was bought from Stationary Engine Parts.
Was matched to new pulley.
Found them very helpful.
Engine jacket was frosted, but seller had already purchased new Listeroid jacket plus head.
New rings and scraper fitted, cleaned pump and injector, and she fired up fine.

[Mostie]

Glad I wasn't standing in the way of that 

[michiel]

What got me involved with Lister??

Two years ago we had a new house built, and there is no better time to include 'green' items as in a new build.

The house is totally 'Electric'. No gas or oil.
The thought behind this was that electric can quite easily be generated on site.

I already had a Proven 6, and 2.5kW of PV which were 'plumbed' into my old business premisses.
Having had sold the company, and built my house next door, I moved the panels and sold off the Proven. (was not performing!!)
Also GSHP and Flat Plate Solar water heating were incorporated into the build.

Replaced Proven with a Gaia, and relocated panels on trackers, but more of that later.

The thing was, that on wind-still and dull days I was still importing.

This bugged me.

In the meantime I had got involved with a couple of restaurants, and saw all this WVO being returned at next to nothing.

Now, I collect from various other establishments as well and am building up a fair stock of oil.

A Lister based CHP was the answer to my problem!!

[michiel]

[michiel]

I'll start with a description of how I filter and de-water the WVO.

The collected oil first goes through a net, an old wind-break, which takes out the fish heads and chips.

[michiel]

[michiel]

This oil is then filtered through an old sheet into a 210lt barrel, where it is heated up to 60C and left to settle for a week.
Water and crud are drained off at bottom.

[michiel]

[michiel]

[michiel]

Next, the oil is pumped through three filters, 80/50/20 micron, into a second 210lt drum, where it is heated again and left to settle for another week.

[michiel]

[michiel]

Then the oil is pumped again, with the same pump, through 2 more filters, 10 and 5 micron into 2 interconnected 210lt drums.
This is then ready for burning.

[michiel]