WVO oil burner

[stephen]

Has anyone seen or done a conversion of a standard oil boiler to run on wvo or boidiesel?
I have one that stands in the corner doing nothing and thought of having a play (if thats the right word) to see if it will fire on hot wvo.

if i can get it to run then i will get it checked by my oil engineer and report back (thats for you safety people out there)

just something else to add to the list over the spring / summer time tinkering.

If I cannot get it to work on straight WVO then I will have a go at making biodiesel, is it easy anyone?

Stephen

[PEMTEK]

You will find that atleast until the pipes have warmed up it wont atomise the oil and it wont burn. Once you get the oil, pipes and nozzle up to temp by external heating it should atomise enough to burn.

I tried it with one I had and it wasnt so clever, if you look on yahoo groups there is a group converting burners to run on wvo.

Mine ran fine on biodiesel but i decided that making enough was a nightmare and really it is wasteful when wvo could be burnt quite easily without being converted in the right burner.

[Ivan]

I was very tempted to try the same thing as you suggest, until I spoke to someone that had tried it. He tried really hard, but it wasn't successful - smoked a lot, difficult to maintain a flame. He said that he heard that it worked if you used a percentage of WVO and a percentage of heating oil (can't remember what they were), but that kind of defeats the object, I think.


By the time you've made biodiesel, you probably should use it in your car - it's the most valuable type of fuel. You can make a babington or turk burner for your oil boiler (basically you're just reusing the water jackets and the firebricks, at that stage). It would work, but having looked into it, it's more effort than I'd make (I'm pretty slow at anything like that, these days, unfortunately). A stationary diesel engine might be a good solution - you'd get some electricity too.

[stephen]

Thanks,
The Lister is a summer job too.  I agree that 1l of veg is worth £1.10 diesel and 40p heating oil.  Its the fun of doing it but it looks like I may not start this one. I would be scared to let the bbbington run on its own in fear of burning the house down.

Stephen

[Ivan]

There are some german boilers designed to run on WVO. Not cheap though.

It's a shame that there isn't a coversion available - I can imagine it would be very popular.

[stephen]

I would expect them to have some kind of band heater to get the wvo to flash point.
I dont want to run the biomass boiler in the summer as its a bit too big and wasteful for 200l of hot water.  I think then I shall go down the route of grid tie Lister and some solar.

on a slightly seperate note does any one add caustic soda to the WVo to remove the soapy stuff.
Its sort of 1/4 way to make biodiesel.  just wondered

Stephen

[Ivan]

There shouldn't be anything soapy in your WVO, UNLESS you add NaOH. The only thing you really want to do is to drive off any water, either by leaving for a few weeks to settle, or with a little heat (50C).


ivan

[stephen]

Thanks Ivan,
I could not understand it either.  Either make boi or filter wvo.
I dont like mixing chemicals anyhow.
I tend to let it settle but as i empty my barrel i am going to move it close to a heating pipe and tap into it to supply heat to the filtered oil.
where is your picture you seem to have miplaced it.


Stephen

[renewablejohn]

Any boiler designed to burn heavy oil will normally burn WVO without any modification as it is a very similar product and requires heat to make it flow properly.

[stephen]

Well my boiler starts with an ignition.  I cannot seem to burn wvo but I can burn Kero.
John,
Have you any experience with this....I can see some tinkerin coming on again.
worst I can do is gunk it all up lol.

Stephen

[byways]

A rather rudimentary WVO heater is on:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_motherearth/me4.html#mwoh

Is it possible to have the whole thing scaled down, perhaps to a 1/3 of the suggested size for a lower capacity heater?

[Ivan]

Stephen,

The water will separate very slowly from your WVO when the temperature drops. I think it takes about 2-3days at 20C, but at 10C, it can still be suspended even a couple of weeks later - so a little heat is a good thing.

Some people add thinners of various kinds to the WVO to try to mimic the viscosity of diesel (white spirit, I think). The viscosity problem is certainly rectified, but there are concerns over loss of lubricity.

On a different note, there's an easy solution to provide you with 200litres of hot water in the summer - NAVITRON SOLAR PANELS!! Seriously, we get enough sunlight in the period when you are not heating your house to provide virtually 100% of your hot water requirements. To illustrate, my solar system is not the most efficient (pipework between panels and hot water cylinder are much too long - which reduces winter performance dramatically...athough I did manage 42C in my 260litre cylinder today). My house is 60% or more heated by woodstove. The woodstove is only on when the weather is cold. Between the woodstove and the solar panels, my 260litre cylinder is heated virtually every day of the year, without the need for additional heat. In the last two years, I've only heated the cylinder from the boiler about 5times/year.

[stephen]

Ivan,
Its on the cards to install a set of tubes and i know i will get all the summer hot water i need. I could always boost it with the lister on dull days. Unfortunatly there are several jobs in front of that that I have been instructed to do!!!!

Stephen

[renewablejohn]

Stephen

Kerosene is a lot thinner and uses a different burner to heavy oil. Heavy oil uses cups to throw the oil into the burner an example was on the thread for a rape seed burner.

[northern installer]

what about the 'wallflame 'or wick type oil burner,as used to be fitted to some agas?I have not tried this myself,but it might be worth a bit of time experimenting?