What to do with WVO?

[Tom Reed]

I run a Listeroid 6/1 in a co-gen system for our off-grid home. The coolant is circulated through hydronic loops in our main and basement floors. From this setup we get plenty of electricity and not so much heat. From your description it sounds like you need lots of heat and not so much electricity. So if you want to use WVO as fuel I would look into a setup with a medium sized boiler and a smaller diesel doing a co-gen.

If you want to talk numbers, then we need some from you such as estimated BTU and KW usage.

[Number21]

The biggest issue here is them boilers ain't cheap. Or all that common. I can't really find a used WVO boiler cheap on craigslist the way I can with a generator. I can probably get a $10,000 or more generator for less than half of it's retail cost. Still won't be cheap, I understand.

A boiler and an engine might be a possibility. Or, as posted earlier, salamander type heater(s) running in combination with an engine. I need heat for the shop area, and heat for other areas like my office. Hydronic (or electric) is really the only way for me to distribute that heat around the warehouse.

As to how many BTU I need, I'm not even sure yet. The main question is operating cost/maintenance vs a boiler. An engine will need regular oil changes. An engine requires finer filtration of the fuel. An engine will probably need periodic adjustments. Am I missing anything major there? Still doesn't seem like a whole lot extra to me.

I also agree an engine will give me fewer BTU of heat than a boiler with the same amount of fuel. That is something I'm going to need to calculate out. I just added up all the lights, I can burn 17KW quite easily. 

[Number21]

Another thing:

Can old gasoline be mixed with the fuel for a diesel engine? We do "inherit" boat tanks FULL of gas that can be 1-10 years old all the time...

[Tom Reed]

Stale gas (RUG) would be a good thinner for WVO.

[SPSInc]

Don't know if this will help you but here is some data I got while testing a CHP.

I used a Yanmar 2TNV70 engine and it ran at 3600 RPM. Output was 8kW (27,000 BTU electrical). It burned .7 gal of diesel/hr (93,000 BTU). Using heat exchangers I was able to capture 42,000 BTU from the exhaust and engine heat.

Maybe that can help provide a starting point to scale the system to your size. If you use hydronic any extra electrical capacity could be used to heat the water placing the engine under an optimal loaded condition.

[M61hops]

Hi #21!  I think that the main issiue in the long run would be that there are a lot of expensive parts that wear out in a diesel generator compared to a boiler set up.  To me it would seem eaisier to set up heat lamps or space heaters run by a generator to heat remote rooms than it would be to plumb up baseboards or radiatiors to a boiler.  Though not knowing the exact details of your shop layout the generator idea sounds good to me.  But, it might come down to rebuild costs a few years down the road?  Or what you can take with you when you move out?  And simple is usually better.  Just my 3.2 cents worth!             Leland

[TimSR2]

Hey #21,

Why not just get an old oil burning house furnace, and set it up as dual fuel?  You could set up a 100 to 200k btu system this way for little investment.   I think for reliability one should start it and stop it on furnace oil.   But run it on your free WVO,  heated and filtered . Cheap, simple, UL/CSA approved equipment.  Have a spare burner nozzle and pump handy in case of trouble.

[LowGear]

Why not just get an old oil burning house furnace, and set it up as dual fuel?  You could set up a 100 to 200k btu system this way for little investment.   I think for reliability one should start it and stop it on furnace oil.   But run it on your free WVO,  heated and filtered . Cheap, simple, UL/CSA approved equipment.  Have a spare burner nozzle and pump handy in case of trouble.

In case you didn't notice really nice home sized units (up to 5000 sq ft) are being dumped to convert to natural gas.

Casey