Fuel oil: waste motor oil as a substitute?

**clovis** · #1 02/14/14, 06:27 AM

Here is a dumb question about fuel oil:

Many years ago, I believe that I heard or read that some people were using waste motor oil as fuel oil for their furnaces.

Seems that they were filtering out the worst of the dirt, and pouring it straight into their fuel oil tanks. They weren't running 100% waste motor oil, but were mixing it with the existing fuel oil or mixing it with diesel fuel.

Are some people really doing this, or did I dream this up somewhere along the line?

Crowbar · #2 02/14/14, 06:36 AM

You are dreaming! To do that it will take a major change in your furnace. They do make a furnace that can burn that ,But they cost a bundle and you would have to have a good supply of wast oil.

I've been there and didn't do it. Good luck!

**clovis** · #3 02/14/14, 06:40 AM

Thanks, Crowbar.

I have no plans to ever own a fuel oil furnace. I was just wondering, and could have sworn that I read that UMO could be added to a FO furnace.

Like I said, a dumb question...

Jim-mi · #4 02/14/14, 08:23 AM

The local oil change place uses waste oil into big ($$$) overhead furnaces.
It must be very well filtered . .

Yes you could do it . . . . .but you darn well better big time filter it first.

rambler · #5 02/14/14, 09:07 AM

Heating fuel - same as diesel fuel - is pretty thin.

Waste oil is kinda thick.

It can work, but you need to filter it, you need to blend it, maybe less than 10%, and you can expect a little bit blacker smoke.

The same deal for using in a Diesel engine. I don't know that it works at all in the newer Diesel engines, but from the 1970s on back, you can do the same.

Now, proceed at your own risk, some new oils have new attitives that make this more interesting, and you are kinda working on the edge, your own risk....

Paul

keithrural · #6 02/14/14, 09:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim-mi

The local oil change place uses waste oil into big ($$$) overhead furnaces.
It must be very well filtered . .

Yes you could do it . . . . .but you darn well better big time filter it first.

Free oil will pay for that furnace in no time.

**Roadking** · #7 02/14/14, 09:11 AM

My mechanic (and my previous one, as well) uses a waste oil heater. Considering how many oil changes he does, it makes sense. He just moved to a larger shop and the biggest thing to move was his tanks of waste oil.
The shop is always toasty.

Matt

Pokletu · #8 02/14/14, 09:47 AM

If you have a big tank, you can add maybe one oil change's bucket to it, to let it dissolve in. My buddy from work does that.

farminghandyman · #9 02/14/14, 09:48 AM

It has been done, and truckers have done it in the past as well, using filtered waste motor oils, mixed down with standard fuel there was a lot of experimentation in the 70's with carters fuel embargo,

and with the proper heaters and orifice changes some even ran straight waste oils,
(basically what a waste oil heater is),

I had a friend who had a oil recycler (actually was built back in the early 1900) and considered buying his machine from him, he would get used oils and filter them and had people who wanted the reclaimed oil, it was basically a no detergent oil, I guess some machine shops who rebuilt engines used it for break in oil,

he said diesel oils were very hard to get all the black out of it, gasoline oil engine were not a problem,

the biggest problem is the viscosity of the oil to the normal fuel, but if I remember correctly the ratio was no more than 10% of the use engine oil in the #2 heating/diesel oil,
other wise the viscosity was being effected, to the point where the oil would not atomize properly.

the easiest way to filter it is to let it set for a few months, and then to carefully pump it off with OUT stirring it up and running it through a standard oil filter,

one article I read said to put one drum up on a shelf with a second under it and use a cotton rope and put in the top drum and then over the edge to the second and it by capillary action and siphon soak up the oil and it would filter through he rope and into the bottom drum (I would think that by putting a piece of pipe or tube around the rope as it came out of the top one to keep from touching the top and edges would be good thing), I have never tried to filter oil this way but seems like it would work.

I think that the reason it is not done much to day is it is messy and a lot of work for 10% of your fuel. and I am sure there may be more cleaning and that that needs to be done to keep things in top efficiency,

on the diesel engines so much has changed in the injection systems I do not know what effects would be in the newer systems,

farminghandyman · #10 02/14/14, 09:57 AM

a number of years ago, there was a AG dealer, who's shop had a fire, (took down the entire buildings) any way the fire caught the waste oil tank in the shop on fire, and 600 to 1000 gallons of used oil can really burn up buildings combines and tractors to nice toasty black color,
the oil tank was IN side above some rest rooms to keep it warm and oil thinner,

the fire department thought they may have been able to contain it if the waste oil heater tank was not there in the building,

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I worked at a collage (school) who use big boilers, and waste oil was trucked in as fuel ( this heated the entire campus, via hot water heat pipes),

we had to have heat loops in the tank to keep the oil warm enough to pump,

Molly Mckee · #11 02/14/14, 10:12 AM

You can buy waste oil heaters, as someone said mechanics often use them. You have to have a steady stream of used oil to feed them, which is why they are popular with mechanics.

CurtisWilliams · #12 02/14/14, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by keithrural

Free oil will pay for that furnace in no time.

If you have a source of free oil, it makes sense. However the days of free waste oil are over unless you have a oil change shop. 25 years ago, used oil was considered a worthless waste product and was commonly dumped down storm drains, ect... Fast forward to today. Used 'waste' oil is a valuable commodity, and with the cradle to grave paper trail, it is not readily accessible. I managed the Tire and Lube Center at a Walmart. Every quart was accounted for. When I worked at Burger King, even the used fry oil was sold for bio-diesel.

I did devise a way to burn my own used motor oil. Fill a coffee can 3/4 full of oil. Place it in the glowing coals in your wood stove. When the oil begins to smoke, touch a hot coal to the oil and POOF, you have a improvised oil burner. A coffee can of oil burned like this will provide a low heat for a couple or three hours. And if you use Burger King oil, it will smell like French fries. Not that I ever got my hands on any...

**clovis** · #13 02/15/14, 07:06 AM

Thank you for the replies!

I've learned a few new things! Thank you for an interesting discussion!

Anyone else want to chime in?

Jim-mi · #14 02/15/14, 08:48 AM

To filter waste veggie oil we use a centrifuge ..... . . (For our diesels)
We take it down to one or two microns . . . .many the time I have seen the "dark" colored oil "look" new/clean . . . . same would apply to super filtered motor oil.....

I haven't hooked up yet the motor oil filter of old which uses a roll of toilet paper. . . .It works . .A friend uses it to filter veggie oil for his VW diesel . . .(summertime)

plowjockey · #15 02/15/14, 12:38 PM

Most real waste oil furnaces uses a pre-heater, to lower the viscosity of motor oil, for proper spray atomization.

Wondering if sludge and dirt in old oil could cause problems in a conventional oil furnace, since plugged nozzles are a common problems with WOFs, despite their filtering capabilities.

MILs house has oil furnace, so no intention of pouring motor oil since I'm the one who will have to fix it.

I'd consider a WOF if I had the oil, but the cheapest (and smallest) ones are $2k and up.

rambler · #16 02/15/14, 01:55 PM

There are plans on the Internet for making a waste oil furnace, drips hot oil into a cast iron skillet, and flash burns it. Often based on an old water heater for a jacket.

Kind of a cobbled together deal, works well until it doesn't, I've heard of skillets burning through and the whole place burns up; the oil control and getting it to heat up but not burn before you want it to, all together a bit of a risky thing if you engineer your own.... And probably not the cleanest burning deal.

But, they are out there.

Paul

**clovis** · #17 02/15/14, 02:38 PM

Why are the WOF units so expensive?

I looked at them a year ago, and WOW, those units are expensive!

joebill · #18 02/15/14, 05:06 PM

In the 60's. I used to sell parts to a string of independent garages and gas stations, and most of the garages had old cast iron furnaces in them that had been retired from coal use. They ran a steel or copper tube from a valve in the bottom of a 20 gallon oil drum into the firebox and adjusted it to a drip, then build a small fire in the box with wood or oil-soaked rags and let it drip and burn all day, with periodic adjustments to the valve as the oil tank heated up and the oil thinned.

Mostly old masonry buildings, so small fire risk, and they could turn those furnaces red hot when the weather dictated.

Pretty similar to the old kerosine stoves when you think about it....joe

Wis Bang 2 · #19 02/15/14, 06:14 PM

There was a setup sold to change big rig oil as they drove down the road, pumping a constant small amount of MO oil into the fuel tank. I doubt it is done w/ today's ultra low sulfur fuel.

Esprit · #20 02/15/14, 06:34 PM

I work at a car dealership that uses waste oil to heat the entire building. I know the furnace is quite large and one of our employees seems to spend a lot of time cleaning it out. I'll have to find out more about it (brand, how it works) etc.