I just recently got an almost-free still (industrial solvent recovery still with a huge vacuum unit, salivate, salivate) and started thinking about the options that opens up for other fuels (ethanol).. I didn't set it up yet as we're trenching for power for it next weekend at the earliest, and I don't know for sure that its entirely intact.
with my electric heating setup, I've had a hard time dewatering extra-bad-quality WVO. Since I do two-stage process, I can handle high ffa content, I just hate dewatering, and I'd like to expand the range of crappy oil (McDonald's...) I utilize. anyway I had a thought that someone else might be able to utilize sooner than I would. How about pulling a vacuum on a container of WVO (such as an electric water heater) and distilling off the water vapor at a lower temp? I haven't built such a unit but it seems like one way to get around the awful energy use issues for dewatering since up to a point, it takes less energy to operate a vacuum pump than it does to operate a heating element. Refrigerator compressors can pull some vacuum and are free. Does anyone know offhand how much vacuum the fridge compressors pull? I was thinking additionally about using one of my 55gallon drums for this- turn a closed head drum upside down, thread a heating element into the larger bung, weld a couple of fittings into what is now the top, and connect them to a source of vacuum and an outlet for the water vapor. I know that drums can't handle much vacuum, too, but water heaters are free as well so one could try that if it collapses a drum (I prefer drums as they're more portable). can someone point me to where I would find info on how much vacuum one needs to lower the boiling point of water, and by how much? thanks, mark e ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Get A Free Psychic Reading! Your Online Answer To Life's Important Questions. http://us.click.yahoo.com/O10svD/Me7FAA/AG3JAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
