I have a few web references and comments that interested waste oil participants may want to look at regarding "homebrew" or other waste oil burners.
Commercial waste oil burners are certainly available. I'll leave this to the search engines if anyone is in the market. (A quick inspection on my part indicates that the smaller "domestic sized" (50K Btu/hr) Lanair machine that I would favor is no longer available. Lanair now seems to want to concentrate on the "automotive" market.) Steve Spence's site www.webconx.com is probably the best of the "homebrew" sites. Now not an active link at the Webconx site but still available at http://www.webconx.com/oil_burner.htm was a "gut level" waste oil burning plan a la Dennis Park ceramic kiln practice. This methodology is/was a simple method whereby waste oil is simply allowed to "drip" onto an inclined, heated plate or louver exposed to the heat of the fire and is problematical in both it's fire danger (what if the fire goes out?) and in starting up (which is usually done with a wood or propane fire.) Airflow/fuelflow could be problematical as well. Steve's webconx site references the classic Mother Earth News #5 article originally written for Popular Science Magazine at www.webconx.com/2000/biofuel/multifuelburner.htm This article contains a couple of errors. The MEN reference for the PS issue should be January 1962 p. 78. The vanes in the burner "throat" should be placed at 45 degrees, a typo which shows in both the MEN reprint AND the PS original article. The original PS article shows a detailed pix showing the vanes mounted at 45 degrees.) This stove has a downside in that it is electrically powered by a variable speed blower and air/fuel proportion is totally manual. One would be constantly trying to minimise airflow to enhance burning efficiency and there would always be the question of too little or too much air. Also, what if the fire should for some reason somehow go out. Not a stove to be left "unattended." Steve includes the classic Mother Earth News #53 article which is a stove built from a discarded water heater at http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_motherearth/me4.ht ml. Similar to the MEN#5 plan, this plan is a rework of a Popular Mechanics Magazine article from October 1941. It's a nice plan in that outside electrical power is not required. Not necessarily a stove to be left unattended but at least if your "supply reservoir" is of less volume than the bottom of the heater up to the inspection door, you won't have oil mess on the floor should the fire go out. The plan suffers a bit from the same airflow/fuelflow problems as the others. A person I have talked to who uses this stove is incorporating a device to heat his oil to a constant temperature to control drip flowrate and claims no need for draft adjustment. While I initially had my doubts about "clean burning" this same person reports that the stove burns "odor and smoke free" when it is hot and burning at a constant rate. He reports some problems with the stove going out when the oil flow is at low flow rates. I myself have this stove under construction currently and while it isn't a "hot" project (literally) I will eventually get it done and give it a try. I'm trying to anticipate problems with the design (such as the supply reservoir issue) and incorporate some improvements which I'll eventually report back on. Steve's reference to the "Babington Burner" at www.webconx.com/2000/biofuel/babington/default.htm are interesting and a design methodology I might eventually try. It does suffer some from the airflow/oilflow syndrome as all of these do but I can see that using a commercial burner/blower and maintaining a constant oilflow/compressed air pressure, this design might be brought to "consistant, repeatable" performance. Still not a burner you would want to walk away from and leave unattended. There are some other "homebrew plans" available on the `net for those willing to pay some money. Seyroche has plans at http://www.seyroche.com/products/wasteoil.htm which look interesting. At only $8, I might want to try there first. No details are shown, however, and it might be a plan which is already in the "common domain." . Three more plans are available for $15 at http://www.autodidactics.com/energy.htm From the little sketch they include I can surmise that at least two of these plans (and possibly all three) are the first three plans I have included on this list and can be had for nada from Webconx. Caviet Emptor. For $15 you too can have plans from http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~alterpla/altenrg4.htm or if you're more than willing to fork over $16.95 for the same thing see www.australiatrade.com.au/Alternative/Energy/catalogue.htm#WASTE OIL WORKSHOP HEATER AND FORGE Both of these seem to be an "unauthorised copy" of the "Cyberport" plans I'll cite in a minute. For those who might want to spend their money on something with a little more "assurance" of a viable product you can spend $29 (with shipping & handling) and get plans from www.wasteoilstove.com. The writer/inventor of this plan has little good to say about the Mother Earth News #53 plans. Compressed air is not required for the stove burner but electricity to drive the blower is. I suspect this is a blower "forced draft" improved version of the MEN#53 plan. The plans shown at http://www.web4.net/~tcdyck/ are $50 American (the originator is in Canada) and convert a standard hot air or hot water furnace to burn waste oil. He reports that compressed air is required and of course electricity to drive the blowers is also. He reports that he uses a unique "agricultural" atomizer" in the burner and heats his house and shops using the device and has done so for many years. The furnace reports to be "fully automatic" and controlled by a thermostat. I got very close to spending my hard earned money for this plan. The plans shown at http://www.cyberport.net/russ/benjamin are also $50 and are here in the USA. A good solid plan that has been around for a while. However, totally manual in it's operation and function. A recent seller on Ebay had a completed "Cyberport" burner for sale and in true seller enthusiasm reported that it worked "great." I think it sold for above $80 complete which was probably the cost of the plan and the parts to make it. Yes, some people who bid on Ebay have some sense. For those wishing to spend more we have at nearly $1800 for a complete barrel kit or about $545 for the controls only and a detailed sketch at http://www.heco.net/Wasteoil.htm which by the time you get to spending this amount you might as well have started at my second paragraph and saved yourself a lot of reading and construction time. Like the wasteoilstove.com plans above, the plan seems to be a blower forced draft augmented version of the MEN#53 stove An unknown quantity which I have been trying to find out more information about is a "sump oil" (i.e. crankcase oil) stove shown at http://home.worldcom.ch/redi/sumpoil.html. Compressed air or electricity is not required I expect from it's application to developing countries. This stove was first shown in "Modern Stoves for All" by the inventor/developer Waclaw Micuta in 1985 which is currently published by Intermediate Technology Publications Ltd at 9 King Street in London. The book is 87 pages and available from Amazon.com for more than $20 PLUS shipping and I sensibly deferred my order. An email to Mr. Micuta at the REDI Institute received no response. This stove can be seen as the HV-1 and HV-2 stoves at http://www.icrc.org/icrceng.nsf/4dc394db5b54f3fa4125673900241f2f/231fd 9d6c658b8f4412568e20032a0f1?OpenDocument which is quite a long web address but the picture of a bunch of stoves under construction (yes, they really made these stoves) is nice. Considering the REDI group's environmental "slant" I expect the design is a sound and nonpolluting one. Hope this helps everyone. Best regards, Joe 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/
