need help keeping my barrels hot!

System · October 2007

Hi,

I use WVO to run my diesel car. One of the things that i need to do to get the oil to a usable state, is to heat it to 100-120 degrees for a day or two at a time, in order to remove the water from the oil.

What i would like to do is use solar energy to accomplish this. the thing that i will be using is something like this..

http://cgi.ebay.com/1000-WATT-BARREL-BUCKET-HEATER-WVO-PLASTIC-STEEL_W0QQitemZ250173747937QQihZ015QQcategoryZ1269QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

It is 1000 watts. From what i understand, i would need to capture enough solar energy to keep a batter charged that would then be hooked to an inverter that would then power the barrel heater...

So, if anyone could either help me, or direct me somewhere that i could figure it out for myself - i need to know what i need to do to accomplish this. I know that things such as how much direct sunlight are a huge variable, but if you guys could just give me a good jumping off point, i would really appreciate it. I just have no idea what math i need to do to figure it out, and i dont know a good place to get supplies (such as an inverter) or what kind of batteries are good to use.....are car batteries exceptable?

anyway, as you can probably tell, i'm pretty clueless, and i would really appreciate any and all advice.

thanks!

James · October 2007

Re: need help keeping my barrels hot!

Hello.
To power a resistive heat element such as your link shows, would require a very large solar electric array battery system and inverter.
In my opinion, not practical at all. I would research heating your oil with a heat exchanger coupled to a solar hot water collector, storage tand and pump.
Much more cost effective than solar electric via pv panels.
Still an investment, but much less than solar electric. You could possibly tie it into a system for your home hot water preheater when not using for your wvo.

Roderick · October 2007

Re: need help keeping my barrels hot!

If what you want to do is drive the water out, have you considered pumping the oil at a low rate (1 gallon per hour) over a rather large black plate in a hot box? What I envision is a box that is insulated on the sides, with glass on top, but a few holes on top to let the water vapor out. And you'd collect the oil in a second barrel. I envision that what you might not achieve in temperature, you might compensate for by sheer area for evaporation, like drying your laundry in a clothes dryer, as opposed to in a cool breeze outside. You could power your oil pump by solar, with the added advantage that the pump would turn off when the sun went down. Not as good as a thermostat, but might be good enough for the rough refining that you're doing.

Just some dreams, you'd have to run the experiments. But if your results are good, you'd advance the state of the art!

mike95490 · October 2007

Re: need help keeping my barrels hot!

I think you want to super insulate your barrels & pipes, and pump the oil thru Parabolic Trough arrays.
see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trough_concentrator &
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_thermal_energy for photos.

That should easily get the oil up to 300F and drive water out.

If you have the space for the PV arrays to heat this, you have more than enough space to run the trough collectors. There are a fair number of sites with info on how to home build the troughs & since you are pumping oil, and not water, you won't have to worry too much about steam pressure.
only gotcha would be dirty oil caking on to the inner wall of the heater pipes.

niel · October 2007

Re: need help keeping my barrels hot!

2 things should be mentioned that were not mentioned.
1> how much oil is needed to go through this process for there's a big difference between say 10 gallons and 100 gallons?
2> what are you presently using to heat the oil with?

roderick has got some good ideas for you, but depending on the answers to my questions mike's ideas may also need to be pressed into service or even some combo or compromise of both of them.

System2 · October 2007

Re: need help keeping my barrels hot!

Keep it simple and inexpensive. To preheat my WVO before straining it out and making biodiesel I have two methods. For the initial part I simply wrap and fasten green house corregated plastic around a steel drum and leave it in the sun for a couple of days. You could cut out the top of the drum and put in a standpipe in the 3/4 in bung with a valve to drain off the oil and leave the seattled water behind. The oil will get up to 130 deg. F. in the summer, it will cool off at night but that is ok and aids water settling. Letting some liquid accumulate in the bottom of drum is an advantage since it seems to attract more water and sludge. From there I pour it thru a 100 mesh filter bag into another drum inside my biodiesel greenhouse. In that drum lives a home made copper coil which recieves hot water from a home made copper H.W. solar collector on the greenhouse roof. Because it freezes here the system is charged with automotive antifreeze. I use a R.V. pump by sureflow powered by a 80 watt P.V. panel taking suction on a 30 gal. insulted tank. At the high point of the system, which is the entrance to the panel, is a vent valve that passes air but stops water on startup but opens after sunset for draindown. With this system I preheat the oil to 130 deg.F as required to make B.D. in all but the coldest days. It also has an open top and 8" standpipe to settle water and crud. At this point you could pour off oil ready to put in your vehicle.

need help keeping my barrels hot!

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