Thread: Burning sump oil

Would the oil wick up the wick?

Can you buy real cinder blocks in Australia?

Ron

Originally Posted by joel_nicholson

What about setting up a frame about 600 mm high with a barbeque slotted plate on top. Place a 5L mower fuel can full of sump oil under the frame with a length of 3/4" copper pipe drilled and pushed into the fuel tin. Buy a length of cotton rope in 3/4" to tightly fit into the pipe, with 1" exposed at the top, running down the pipe into the tin. Place a cinderblock above the flame on the bbq plate to act as a heatsink. Keep the wick nice and short and it shouldn't smoke too much.

The oil wicks up the wick just fine if its cotton or summat.

Not sure if I'm using the correct term but I had two of these lying around:

Hi Guys,

Don't mean to be a 'wet blanket' on a scheme to recycle such an 'orrible waste product but...

There's lots of warnings around these days about avoiding contact with sump oil because of carcinogenic compounds in it. What happens to these when you burn the stuff in space heaters and/or engines? Will you end up poisoning yourself or those around you?

Don't get me wrong, I'd really like a safe way to use old oil rather than take it to the tip but don't want to wake up dead one day because of it.

Originally Posted by joel_nicholson

The oil wicks up the wick just fine if its cotton or summat.

Not sure if I'm using the correct term but I had two of these lying around:

dems besser blocks........

Cinder block look the same but use ash instead of aggregate.

Re the contaminants, they're going up the chimlee.

Ron

There are comercial oil heaters available which use separated oil (no carbon or contaminants) and have a filtration system on the flu much the same as a cat converter but as you can imagine they are bloody expensive.

Those older style oil heaters which is basically a bucket with a lid with the flu out the top and a pipe going in through the top and below the oil level so you can top it up are not meant to be used these days due to the polution problems.

They soot up your roof so if you catch rain water off the roof then you end up with soot as well and they stink out the neibourhood pretty bad.

As I posted in the other thread:

Originally Posted by isuzurover

Sump oil is absolutely full of soot, and also contains wear metals. Don't know if it is still legal - not sure.

When regulations came in for large diesels that the breathers could no longer be vented to atmosphere, the manufacturers quickly found that the small amount of soot-laden blowby oil mist would kill the turbocharger bearings/bushes very quickly. For this reason all large/heavy duty diesels in Europe and the US now have CCV (closed crankcase ventillation) filters fitted. This small amount of oil mist was also causing difficulties in meeting emissions regulations.

Primary diesel soot particles are 30 nanometres or so in diameter - too small to be removed by filters. Although they are very small, they are good at doing damage. I wouldn't like them in my expensive fuel pump and injectors, even in low concentrations.

Waste oil is usually recycled or burnt in industrial furnaces (as a fuel), where any emissions can be properly treated/controlled.

If the Hannifin/Racor filter system is good enough to remove the 30nm soot particles then I don't see a problem with burning used oil - I highly doubt it though. There are some centrifugal separators which can remove particles down top that soize, but they have fairly low efficiency for single-pass filtration.

The MTU engines we use in mining trucks burn up their sump oil at around 30 litre's per 12hr shift.I don't see the need because you just have to fill them again and when you service them you drain the lot.It's pointless. Pat