October 6, 2008, 2:49 am
email me: vespizzare@comcast.net
I started researching bio-diesel back in summer of 2006. I was intrigued right from the start. What could be better than fuel for a $1.00 per gallon - and it burns much cleaner than petro-based diesel at that.
If you have done some research into bio-d because it is something that you think you may want to pursue for yourself you have probably picked up on the fact that you DO NOT want to be getting your oil from some place that lets water get into the Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO). Water IS part of the process for making methyl-ester (the technical name for the more common "bio-diesel") but in terms of the raw material, the WVO that you will most likely be getting from a restaurant, you don't want water in it.
I realized this while doing my research into the process and decided that I didn't want to take a chance of having water in my raw WVO. My research into "what could I do to insure that there is as little or better yet NO water in my WVO" led me to the CENTRIFUGE idea. A centrifuge will spin the water, and a bunch more crap, out of the WVO if there is any present.
I purchased a relatively inexpensive centrifuge from a company called: simplecentrifuge.com. So far so good. I did a test run last week and it worked like a champ. You have to plumb it the way that you want it and what I mean by this is, it does not come as a "PLUG and PLAY" unit. It is understandable as different people will no doubt want a different set up so why would the simplecentrifuge people go to the trouble of guessing what to include and what not to include in the way of plumbing.
Upon further reading I have discovered that the best way to create the best condition for water removal from WVO is to heat it before running it through the centrifuge. The specifics of THIS process will have to be tried and tested. I will post my findings.
Also, I would be remiss in my accounting if I failed to mention that I purchased a Bio- D "processing" unit from the FuelMeister company. It is their 2nd version of their original thus it is called the FuelMeister 2 (or II). I have just unpacked it tonight but will post all my comments on the ease of use (or not) of the unit.
