Waste Vegetable Oil

Comments — “We had hoped that iron would continue to improve in the latest sample from your F-250 but it increased ever so slightly here. The 2 ppm increase isn’t anything to get too upset about but it does appear that a steel part is still wearing poorly. All other wear read right around our universal average levels and in the proper balance. No fuel, coolant, or moisture was found. The TBN was still strong at 7.1 so you still had plenty of active additive left when this fill was changed. If you’re comfortable with wear at these levels, try 6,000 miles next time.”

Comment — “Scaling back your miles this time has helped lead drop back to the normal range, but iron, though improved as well, was still reading about average. We’ll watch iron, and as long as it keeps decreasing we won’t worry too much about it. Potassium and sodium were noted again but are nothing new for this WVO runner. The viscosity read in the 15W/40 range and the oil showed no signs of fuel or water contamination. The TBN read strong at 7.3, indicating lots of active additive still remained. Still with 4,000 to 5,000 miles until iron gets back down to average.”

Comments — “Since your coolant level is steady, the potassium and sodium that are showing up in your oil may be from the hydroxides used to process the waste vegetable oil before it is used as fuel. You ran about the same amount of miles on this oil as the last one but iron (cylinders) and lead (bearings) increased. It could well be that the WVO is affecting wear; we have seen this type of wear in other diesels using WVO. The TBN was 6.4 this time. We suggest lowering oil use to ~4,000 miles to control excess wear metals. Check back to monitor.”

Comments — “The potassium and sodium that show up here could be from hydroxides used to process the waste vegetable oil (harmless), but both are also components in coolant. If coolant is in the oil, it doesn’t appear to be much. However, we suggest monitoring the coolant level, just in case. Most metals stayed put since last sample, but lead increased a bit. This could be from a temporary particle streak through bearings; if so it should drop next time. The TBN read 6.7, which shows plenty of active additive left. No fuel or water was found.  Try 9K miles on the next oil.”

Comments — “We salute your interest in renewable energy. Soy is not only great for making tofu or acting as filler in mass-produced hamburger patties; its oil makes a nice little fuel! We didn’t find any semblance of vegetable oil contamination or any other related problems in this sample oil. And, wear still compared quite well with averages, so this engine appears to be getting the job done, without any evident poor-wear or mechanical issues that we can see. The 1.0% fuel is acceptably low, and the 5.9 TBN shows lots of additive still active. Try 9,500 miles on the next oil.”

Comments — “With this third sample data, we can sit back and view wear metal trends: they look low and flat, just the way you want them to. The wear profile of this third sample from your 7.3L contains virtually no wear metal, except for a tad of iron. It’s becoming rather clear that this engine is wearing appropriately, with the oil consistently putting up such great data in testing. The TBN was 7.4 this time, denoting a lot of oil additive still active against acidity as of the sample date. No fuel dilution or coolant was noted. Add ~4,000 miles to this oil and check back then.”

I continue to research the possibility of using the potential straight Soybean Oil source in my 7.3L PSD.  Several sites suggest that filtering the soy oil through a 10 micron or better (in my case, 2 micron) bag filter is recommended to prevent the soy oil from gumming up your fuel pump.  Supposedly, the cold filtering will allow the bag filter to capture a significant amount of the FFAs (free fatty acids).  This works for me since I’ve abandoned heated filtering through the bag filter.  I am relying on my pair of onboard Racor 1000 heated filters for water separation.

Can anyone confirm if soy oil would be safe to use after cold filtering?  The oil collection info from GFS claims that any translucent WVO is a safe bet as long as it has little/no water.  Maybe it’s safe to use regardless?  I’ll keep looking for suggestions or feedback from anyone who has used straight Soybean Oil in their 7.3L PSD for an extended period of time.  I’ll update this post with any information or feedback I find.

I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about my WVO sources and am at various stages in the requesting and collecting process with several different sources.

I am now on a first name basis with kitchen staff at the “Tuesday morning” Canola oil source (day of my pickup, not the retail store) that my blending friend is sharing with me.  They pour their fryer oil into metal buckets and set them just inside the back door.  I simply pour those buckets into 5 gal paint buckets, but anticipate furnishing them with a Plant Drive funnel and stand so that we can pour the oil back into the original 35# containers.  Sometimes 1-2 metal buckets contain hamburger grease, so I drive those to their grease dumpster for them since it is about 4-5 city blocks from the kitchen.  I noticed that the container seems to contain a lot more grease than it did a few months ago, so I asked them if they changed the oil multiple times per week in case we were missing a pickup.  He confirmed that they were not right now, but that there is a chance they might start changing oil more frequently in the summer months.  There must be another kitchen at the facility.. sure wish I knew where the extra oil was coming from so that I could pickup before it lands in the rendering company’s container.

I am waiting for my new 55 gal drum lids to arrive so that I can furnish containers to two fast food restaurants.  Billy said that they shipped yesterday.  I know the person who owns the two sites, but need to get to know the managers and staff at each site.  I also need to firm up a company name and phone number that I can list on the containers.  These sites will output a mix of Soybean oil (SO) and Hydrogenated Soybean oil (HSO) that also contains some shortening and TBHQ.  Plenty of people advise against the use of any Hydrogenated oil in your SVO/WVO setup.  Several sites (ie: PlantDrive FAQ) advise against the use of Soybean oil because of it’s high Iodine values and high free fatty acid (FFA) values.  I will probably have to trade all of this oil for credit toward B99 at the local biodiesel plant.  I’ll just mix the B99 with my Canola WVO.  I’ll try this for a month or so and see how the numbers work out.  I’m hoping the biodiesel plant will exchange their 70 gal/wk of WVO (~$0.75/gal?) into 20+ gal/wk of B99 ($2.20/gal).  Even if I am not able to use raw Soy Oil, the B99 should be safe and this type of volume will meet nearly all of my week-to-week fuel needs with just a few hours of work each week.

I’ve approached a local kitchen that I already visit weekly or more for community service/club meetings.  I already know the manager and a hand full of staff on a first name basis.  Their menu mentions something about using healthy vegetable oil.  I started by checking the oil quality in their dumpster (dark liquid), then left a letter for the manager (based on this Clean Grease post), then followed up with the manager in person at a community event a few days later (this was planned/expected), then received call from his boss (owner?) who said they were getting paid for oil so I offered to provide a quote if I could pickup a sample.  I picked up a sample yesterday.  The original 35# container lists ingredients as Soybean Oil with TBHQ.  Well, crap!  They would only produce about 70# (15 gal) per week, so this is probably not going to be worth quoting $0.25/gal to $0.50/gal if I only end up receiving $0.75/gal credit from the biodiesel plant.

I’ve been introduced to another local kitchen that might have Canola oil.  The manager seemed receptive to the idea of having me pickup their oil, but I could tell that she would want me to quote a price per pound or per gallon that I would be willing to pay them.  I need to send the manager an email with some information, but am trying to firm up a few particulars (ie: company name, road tax registration, 1-2 most important questions for them .. oil ingredients? oil volume?) and produce a few staged action photos (ie: picture of me refilling 35# container with funnel and stand, picture of outdoor containers at the two restaurants I described above, picture of me pouring filtered WVO from original 35# oil containers into my truck) before I make contact again.  It seems that about the only way I could justify paying $0.07/lb or $0.50/gal for any WVO would be if they were using pure Canola oil and were willing to pour their waste oil back into the original containers to avoid contamination (water, etc).

My goal is to establish 2-3 sources that generate a total of about 45 gal per week, even though I am only consuming an average of 25 gal per week.  I could store the reserves in my 275-gal poly so that I don’t run dry even when I take my occasional long trips (500-2000 mile round trip).

Dropped both of my first oil samples in the mail about a week ago.  Received an email with my first two Used Oil Analysis (UOA) results from Blackstone Labs (http://blackstone-labs.com/).  The first UOA reflects 3400 miles on diesel #2 only and was very positive.  The second UOA reflects 5200 miles on diesel #2 and an occasional switch to a 50/50 mix of diesel #2 and WVO (canola) and was also very positive.  The wear on my F-250 7.3L PSD seems to be below average and the TBN values on my oil seem to be holding up very well.  The labs suggested stretching to 7500 miles, but I changed my oil immediately after the 5400 mile sample.

After my last sample and oil change, I continued to gradually increase % WVO in my heated tanks. 50/50, then 40/60, then 25/75, now 10/90.  Very unlikely that I will be able to extend usage much past 3000 miles now that I’m running on 10/90 mix of diesel #2 and WVO (canola).  Now that I am using a high % WVO in my heated tanks, I plan to send samples again at 3400 miles and 5200 miles so we can compare apples to apples.

Also, I picked up a nice compact 5400rpm bench centrifuge with 15mL tubes from Patricia on Craig’s List for $35 tonight.  Hoping to use it to check oil samples for water and particles.  She was very interested when I told her how I planned to use the centrifuge and she thought it would work perfectly.  She had previously used the centrifuge to test waste water samples while providing consulting to treatment plants.  She asked about the possibility of consuming waste fuel from the grease traps at restaurants.  I explained that I was simply using fryer oil.  Interestingly enough, I just read about the concept of extracting fuel from grease traps at Black Gold Bio Fuels website (http://www.blackgoldbiofuels.com/) in the past few days.  Clean grease traps, deliver to processing site, extract fuel (usually 3% of volume), send other 97% to waste-water treatment plant.  Good conversation.

Met with my friend who owns several local restaurants and am planning to begin pickup of fryer oil from two nearby locations.  Will provide a 55-gal drum with special lid at each location and will have to empty the containers each week, since I am anticipating each site will generate approx 35-gal each week.

Planning to pickup drums on Wed 03/25.  Ordering 3 locking drum lids.  Also ordering a pair of 100 micron drum filters so I can determine if something like this may help with the collecting and/or filtering process.

Also ordered 3 of the PlantDrive funnels with stands so that smaller sites can simply refill their original fryer oil cubes.