I purchased a 55 GPH deluxe centrifuge kit from PA Biodiesel. Joe is great! The kit arrived in a short time and it went together nicely. NOTE: I don't have any problems with the kit. I run the oil at 150 F (middle of barrel, hotter at the bottom), and the pressure is 90-95 psi.
What I have a problem with is actually operating the centrifuge.
I have included pictures of my setup below.
The 2 pictures at the very bottom show what I used to open the barrel cap. Open up a pipe wrench and clamp on a pair of vice grips. Bump the end of the vice grips with a small sledge hammer.
PROBLEM: No matter how long I run the centrifuge I still clean out the same amount of crud. Mind you the pictures below are from the first cleanout. The rest of the cleanouts have a little less crud, but it isn't getting thinner and thinner like I hoped! The batch of oil I currently have in my drum I have been processing for over 20 hours. Every 4-6 hours I stop the centrifuge pump and I tear down the centrifuge and clean it. I then put everything back together and start processing again.
Am I just not patient enough? What is the average processing time for a centrifuge on 40 gal of oil? Not much water is coming off the bottom of the drum. I am maintaining the oil at a temperature of 150 F in the middle of the barrel. It is warmer at the bottom of the drum where the band heater is located.
This oil came from a trucking company. The drum was sealed from the elements, and the oil came from routine oil changes. The trucks are TOP NOTCH!
wish i knew .. but i dont .. anything at all about that set up. way back in the 70s i use to clean up one once a day er night... it was the night shifts job... it had a plate system. 52 plates that had to each be cleaned and wiped dry. and i only got a small residue off the plates in a 24 hour run. this was cleaning the oil on a 32 ft long cooper besermer engine V16 over 2 stories tall. once a year we changed the oil out. 23 55gal drums, first let the engine sit for 4 days to cool off and then 3 days to chance the oil. all the outer doors came off and someone had to go inside the crank and wipe the walls down. we only changed the oil every other year.so if you run it about 20 hours then you should be getting all the trash out in my opion
Those little centrifuges are meant to be used as a bypass filter on a diesel truck with maybe a 6 gallon crankcase capacity. For a truck with more oil, the centrifuge should be much bigger.... Even the Spinner II centrifuge on my deuce is twice that size.
Is the outfit you bought it from actually advertising it for cleaning WMO? Or do they sell it for 'polishing' biodiesel? In my opinion, that is way undersized for processing WMO. As you discovered, it is overwhelmed by the amount of crud. Maybe with a spin-on filter in-line before the centrifuge it would do better. Take a look at the Wolverine Technologies centrifuges in the classifieds here, that's what I'm planning to get... I have hundreds of gallons of WMO waiting for processing, and mine is dirty stuff. Water, leaves, dirt, etc.
Jon
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I would be patient. Diesel truck oil has LOTS of soot in it and 40 gallons is a lot of oil.
Like others have said that is a fairly small filter system
I might try uping the cleaning interval and see if it is just as full. It might be filling up in the first 10 minutes of operation and just recycling for the other 3:50.
The lower your feed rate, the longer the retention time in the bowl, the cleaner your oil will be. However, that unit is speed controlled by your pump pressure I do believe. Did you get a cross section of that unit? Could you post it?
Those tiny centrifuges just aren't made to do what you want it to do. You need a bigger, motor driven centrifuge to do it properly. Otherwise your going to take a week to clean a tank of fuel.
Maybe I spoke too soon. I think I reached the tipping point because I just emptied the bowl and it was noticeably thinner. I'll post more results tomorrow.
I would heat up the oil and let it sit for a day or more and then drain out the bottom of the barrel. Also put a filter before the inlet to the centrifuge, something like a 50 micron maybe to get the large stuff out.
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About to give up on my Centrifuge! Help...
