Hello Everyone,
I was wondering if anyone has made any headway with the the
vapour from hot spins.
I was thinking of blowing a fan exhast through my barrel to get rid of the moisture laden air.
If not that maybe a condenser or somesort.
I think spinning into an insulated barrel would be helpful too.
Any thoughts?

thanks


My setup so far is here
www.delica.ca/forum/raw-power-cenrifuge-first-try-5746.html
its the enthusiast site for the ImportVan I drive in Canada,but you will get the jist of it, Maybee some of you will like the
rubber mat-barrel lid idea.

The unit is great by the way Leon thanks man, I am sure we can work out any bugs with all the brains we have!

Hey GreaseBear,

Read about your experiences on the delica forum. How fast are you running the oil?

Indeed the ability to dewater is common issue/concern. I have suggested that controlling the air flow in the centrifuge would address this but have been slow to play with concept. I have now done a few tests, I can let you in on what I know so far.

Do this:
1)Remove both the plug and the vent from the lid. While running hot.
- You will see that air flows in the outer port and out the center port (with a lot of vapor.

2) I believe that you will want to plumb both of these ports down to a bucket. This will keep stuff from falling into the centrifuge and provide a condensation trap for the water and oil vapor. The oil vapor will get messy if you don't contain it and it will be nice to see what you are blowing out of the centrifuge.

This could be a significant breakthrough in the de-watering effectiveness of the centrifuge. I would like to see/hear some independent tests to confirm my results.

Leon

Hey Leon and everyone,

I will try that. (I was thinking something along those lines)
really interested in catching and condensing the H20vapour,so I can proudly hold it aloft and yell "Not in my Oil,@#^%&*" or something
like that....hehehe

Having fun with it,free time is always an issue of course.

We will kick its ass and solve this!

Thanks!
Stay Greasy!

Hey Guys!

We have taken the vent and plug off the top of the centrifuge, and it does indeed exhaust some water vapour. It will get everywhere if not plumbed.
Another note, is if it is possible to dewater over a longer period of time, (longer than the time spent in the heating enclosure) Put your batch of feedstock into a barrel, or other container that will sustain temperatures over 220 degrees F. allow the oil to burn off the water and then process thru the centrifuge from there. We circulate the hot oil drawing from the bottom of the tank to the top and pressurizing it thru a nozzle. We have had great success in lowering the water content in our feedstock. It is an energy hog, and may not be practical for small batch members, but is worth looking into if high water content is an issue.

Hey thanks BigVern,

Time is always the shortest commodity for me with my oil
project,it's really cool to have some other input.
I am messing around with a condenser and a slight positive
air pressure (along with the heat from the RPC)to push out the vapour.

I am familiar with the other method,wondering what set up
for the nozzle and pump(what psi and what kind of nozzle ect)
Would you say you are dewatering via circulation and airation or getting a flash evaporation going? Do you have a positive pressure
getting rid of the vapour?

I have some of those silicon band heaters,although you can set up a water heater element and thermostat way cheaper.

I also insulated the heck out of a barrel and that really really
helps keep the energy usage down. I wrapped a barrel in house insulation then wrapped that in cling wrap and tucked it in
before the upper lip. Still have to make a mushroom cap for the lid with some thru holes for the piping. The wrapping part was a huge pain in the ass because I used flexibat and it does not flex that well. Also don't skimp on the cling wrap like I did or it's a ananoyingly delicate process trying to put a bit (not too much) of
compression on the insulation and then have the cling wrap break on you....a two person job for sure.Happy once it was done though!



I would like to come up with a good RPC inclusive solution for
users that are space limited and for keeping the RPC a portable
system.

Right on!
Stay Greasy!

Hey there GreaseBear

We use a 300 Gallon grease dumpster with 13,500 Watts of electric heat at 240 volts.
Our other system that is being developed now has a waste oil fired heater with a hot water circulation pump into a similar horizontal tank with a nozzle.
We have machined simple nozzles, and have found a wide medium-fine misting nozzle around 180 deg would work well. Since we need to process the oil in semi large batches to make sense, we are limited to using larger than drums for this particular stage.
The magic is getting the oil above 220 deg F to ensure all the water has boiled off.
I would be interested to hear and/or help in the development of a condenser type system.
Anything that keeps the energy down is worthwhile. We have contemplated solar panels to heat the oil, but that is a huge capital investment.
In terms of making the operation mobile or portable, I think that is easily acheived.
Where are you located GreaseBear? If you are near me, Ive got some intersting parts that may help you make it a portable system. Is it your intention to run the whole operation on 12 volts or 120 volts? Either can be done....