Like collection equipment, it is possible to go very slick with the machinery of filtration, centrifuging, flash evaporation and such. Most WVO folks will tell you that heat and time are your friend. With both of these you can defeat the twin foes of WVO as Fuel: Particulate matter and water. Centrifuging and fancy piping and filters will save you time. If i had lots of oil coming in and heavy use in my immediate future (a good problem to have) I would consider jumping right into a centrifuge set up.

My plan involves metal barrels with band heaters, hoses and filters. The image above is more of a logical construction than the physical plan. For instance Mist washing and de-watering, as they both require heating the oil, are likely to happen in the same barrel. Also the filters in the diagram suggest house filter casings with plumbing, it may be the case that I use sock filters and my collection pump to move the oil around. The pre-filtration unit may be a 5 gallon bucket with window screen and old sheets or a 55 gallon drum top filter. The idea at this stage is to understand what steps need to be taken to take fryer fresh oil and prepare it for the fuel tank.

WVO

Living in a city, a city with pretty strict water control rules, means that WVO collection is not going to be easy.

I have been told by restaurant owners that the companies that collect their oil under contract also submit information to the city that it was picked up. If the city does not get these notices, they visit the restaurants and charge them fines as they must be dumping it. I am not sure if this is a scare tactic, but it sure doesn’t help in getting donations.

I am pretty sure I will be starting as a midnight bandit in my WVO collections and will be getting pretty low grade WVO until i can locate good sources. As a result my WVO preparation is going to require mist washing to remove all the nasties.

My first order of business is to scout out the dumpsters and barrels in a 5-10 mile radius and track the oil quality and dump schedule of the restaurants.

ATTN: Fellow WVO bandits in the West LA area, apologies in advance if i stray into your territory. Please ask questions first (then shoot if necessary).

Not sure the etiquette here, the goal is to get legitimate oil and not to start a ‘turf war’. anyone have any pointers?

WVO

That is the question. Either way you must have clean and dry WVO to start with. The question is where to do the work. Do you brew the WVO with chemicals to create Bio-diesel that runs in your un-modified vehicle? Do you blend the WVO with un-leaded gas and other thinners to run in your un-modified vehicle? OR do you modify your vehicle to run on straight WVO?

Brewing Bio-diesel
From my on-line research, brewing bio-diesel did not appear to be the best solution for a city dweller with limited experience. Storing and dealing with caustic chemicals was the biggest negative for me. The initial start up cost of the fuel preparation is a bit higher as well, but likely off set by the elimination of the need to modify your vehicle. My understanding is that many of the chemicals used can be recovered in your post processing and you have a bit of a closed loop. I could see this being the right choice if i was running a fleet of diverse vehicles so as to eliminate the need for diverse vehicle modification. On the plus side I understand that one of the by-products of this process is soap. Free soap.

Blending WVO
There is a fair bit of activity around blending WVO with regular unleaded gasoline (RUG) and isopropyl alcohol (IPA) in a 80/15/5 blend which closely mirrors the viscosity and cetane rating of diesel (D2). Other thinners include stale aviation fuel, turpentine, acetone and kerosene to varying mixtures. Some of the online posts i have read suggest that mixtures of up to 30% non-WVO thinners are possible without negative impact to a diesel engine. I am not sure the neighbors would appreciate my storing barrels of RUG in my garage. The volatile nature of these liquids and the need to dilute my free WVO with up to 30% of costly substances deterred me from pursuing WVO blending.

Straight WVO
This seemed to be the purist solution. I also liked that as a system completely parallel to the existing fuel system in my vehicle, worst case i can not turn it on, purchase bio-diesel at the pump and be no worse off. Other than some barrels, valves and filters, the harshest mechanism i will employ is heat in some of my WVO preparation steps. I will also make sure to use a well trusted and field tested solution for the modifications to my vehicle.

Decision made, time to see what the best vehicle and modifications are out there!

WVO