Waste Vegetable Oil contains a number of contaminants. All the way from french fry bits to tiny specs of flour. Even freshly pressed oil contains waxes and water which affect flavor and pass right through filters. There is no substitute for an oil centrifuge. They are widely accepted as they answer for cleaning vegetable oil. Many start out with filter bags, and at one point upgraded to pressure driven centrifuges. Now, most people serious about taking care of their vehicles upgrade to these open bowl type centrifuges. They hold much more debris, clean finer and are much less hassle. You don’t have to sit around and babysit them like the pressure driven centrifuges.
Running waste vegetable oil as fuel is a great idea. You need an oil source, a centrifuge and a robust diesel to burn the fuel. I’ve talked to folks who have put over 200k miles on their trucks running SVO or WVO. The key is to have it finely cleaned, with all of the potential contaminants removed along with the suspended water. It’s always best to settle your oil first, then run it through the centrifuge. About 1 week of settling is standard…but the longer the better. You’ll want to stop the centrifuge and let it drain of the trapped water and liquid fats after 50-60 gallons of cleaning. The dirt and debris really packs down, so much that you only need to clean it every 500 gallons or so.
Here are the basics:
- For most fuel systems, the WVO needs to be cleaned down to 10 micron absolute.
- All free and suspended water needs to be removed from the oil.
- Oil is lighter than water and most contaminants, so time and gravity will separate the good from the bad. Settling is key!
- The warmer the oil, the faster it will settle, centrifuge and filter.
Don’t let the cleaning of your oil scare you off from running WVO.
For gravity fed setups, you can simply turn the centrifuge on and let it run. There’s no need to hang around an babysit it. You turn it on in the morning, and come back to a barrel/tote of clean fuel 5 hours later.
The Oil Centrifuge is Great for:
- Old Mercedes
- Powerstrokes, Cummins, Duramax
- Tour Buses and Semi Trucks
- Diesel Generators
- Waste Oil Burners
Finely cleaning your oil with a centrifuge will extend your on-board filter life along with protecting your diesel engine and other fuel system components like your fuel pump, injection pump and injectors.
You really must have clean fuel. The myth that you can just dump oil in your tank from the back of a restaurant is not true. There’s much to be considered, and clean oil is a top priority.
A centrifuge allowed me to successfully run WVO in a variety of vehicles for over 4 years. I’ve owned 300SD, 300D, Powerstrokes and probably a few I forgot. I never needed to change my on board filters, it was always a precaution after 15k miles.
Lot’s of people rely on these centrifuges to run veggie oil and reduce their fuel costs to little or nothing.