Explosion proofing. I avoid all these safety problems by running on SVO but thought this might help those folks making BioDsl. The best explosion proofing is to have no open sparks. No ignition-no explosion. Hermetically sealed electric motors are usually expensive ,save for one exception,discarded refrigerator compressors. These are usually free and so can be set up in parallel if more capacity is needed with little extra cost. They produce two things -vacuum and pressure very slowly. Both products can be accumulated using discarded hot H2O tanks or well water pressure tanks and are also usually free. Empty "freon" tanks also work well and may be available at the same place you get the compressor. The vacuum aspect greatly simplifies moving liquids from one place to another and negate the need for pumps. It is also very useful for any distillation procedures as it greatly lowers the energy input required.
Either the pressure or vacuum can be used for bubble wash. By using solenoids on the vacuum or pressure lines controlling liquid movement they can be located away from any potentially explosive atmosphere as well as avoid any deleterious effect the liquid may have on them. It is also much easier to move large volumes of possibly viscous liquid via pressure differential than try to run it through the restricted opening of a salvaged solenoid valve. Accumulated air pressure can be used for stirring and other motive power via cheap air powered drills. A single $US30 air drill can be easily used for many different applications by simply "chucking" onto different shafts. They are also by nature variable speed and can be set up with a needle valve in the air line so even with the trigger taped wide open a slow and constant speed can be set. If oiled regularly they will last nearly forever. The possibilities are endless and inexpensive. Also, inexpensive "snap" switches of the type used in home furnace applications (US$5-$8) will often suffice for temperature regulation if one wishes to automate the process. Since they are cheap redundancy is the key to safety. A $5 switch set to shut the operation down if a max temp is reached is cheap insurance. Since I am experimenting with combining bubble washing and secondary treatment with ethanol as a prefiltering strategy and use minimally filtered WVO with my simple wick burner assembly I am trying to work out a simple way to transfer the heat of that open flame burner. I currently heat only SVO and then transfer any heated SVO (via vacuum) into containers which share an insulated space with containers of the ethanol/SVO mixtures. The otherwise wasted heat is thereby "recovered". Possibly a closed loop coolant filled circuit and small WVO fired boiler would work.I am open to suggestions. For maintaining constant heat of less than 100 F I currently use discarded waterbed heaters which are free and are easily strapped to the containers. No spark hazard there. My containers for collection and processing are 55 gallon steel drums. Easy to move and though not free are very,very cheap. Dana Linscott __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! GeoCities - quick and easy web site hosting, just $8.95/month. http://geocities.yahoo.com/ps/info1 ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Universal Inkjet Refill Kit $29.95 Refill any ink cartridge for less! Includes black and color ink. http://us.click.yahoo.com/QzLWzD/MkNDAA/ySSFAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
