# Burn waste oil in Wood boiler



## buddha (Aug 3, 2011)

I would like to add the option to burn waste oil.  I am planning on using a gear pump in the tank and a nozzle on the end of the fuel line. I am planning on wiring the gearpump to the aquastat so it turns on with the blower.  The manufacturer of the boiler will drill the hole in the boiler for the fuel line and nozzle, I just need to tell them how big to make it.

I am still trying to figure out the best way to do this.  Any suggestions?


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## boilermanjr (Aug 3, 2011)

Whoever the manufacturer is should be ashamed of themselves for enabling their product to be used to burn waste oil.  This type of stuff is what causes wood burners to come under constant attack from regulators.  Get a boiler designed for burning waste oil if you really feel a need to burn it.


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## buddha (Aug 3, 2011)

Why would burning waste vegetable oil cause a problem?  Everything I read has said it burns clean and CO neutral.  I know motor oil if it is not filtered properly can be bad.

I would love to buy a second boiler, but I cant afford it.  Why cant a wood boiler be used for both?  Seems like all the parts are there aside from fuel delivery system.

Please understand I am not knocking your post, I am just trying to understand.  I have researched this quite a bit, but have little experience.


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## Clarkbug (Aug 3, 2011)

When I read your post, I also read it as burning waste motor oil, not waste vegetable oil.  I think thats where boilermanjr's response came from.

Waste vegetable oil can burn similar to diesel, assuming you are set up correctly for it (if you search around the internet you can see kits to run diesel vehicles on it with a little modification).  I would think it would make more sense to burn the WVO in an oil burner than a wood burner.  

I dont know if this would work, others who have more experience should be able to chime in.  But I would think all fuel oil nozzles are the same size, with just a different orifice, right?  What is your plan to ignite the oil?  Otherwise you could just pump oil the whole time and fill the boiler, right?  

Also, are you going to heat the oil to keep it flowing properly?


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## buddha (Aug 3, 2011)

Sorry I should have been more specific on the type of oil.

I am planning on burning wood but have the oil spray in when the blower kicks on.  I am hoping to reduce the amount of wood I need to get through the winter and get the fire hotter quicker to get a more complete burn.  I would use wood fire to ignite and hot water line to heat incoming oil.  I could even put an hx in the oil tank to heat it up and it could serve as supplemental heat storage.  I guess I will have to figure out a safety switch to  keep it from filling up if the wood fire is out.

Not sure about nozzles it is hard to find information on them.  Sounds like some people use a drip and some use a nozzle with an air compressor(which is suppose to be better).


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## Badfish740 (Aug 3, 2011)

buddha said:
			
		

> Sorry I should have been more specific on the type of oil.
> 
> I am planning on burning wood but have the oil spray in when the blower kicks on.  I am hoping to reduce the amount of wood I need to get through the winter and get the fire hotter quicker to get a more complete burn.  I would use wood fire to ignite and hot water line to heat incoming oil.  I could even put an hx in the oil tank to heat it up and it could serve as supplemental heat storage.  I guess I will have to figure out a safety switch to  keep it from filling up if the wood fire is out.
> 
> Not sure about nozzles it is hard to find information on them.  Sounds like some people use a drip and some use a nozzle with an air compressor(which is suppose to be better).



I dabbled in this with my wood furnace as I run my truck on WVO and have quite a bit to spare usually.  It was too much of a hassle to operate with a furnace, so I gave up, but you may have more luck.  I did use a small air compressor that I got at a surplus place online for $35 along with a Delavan nozzle designed for industrial waste motor oil burners like the ones used for heating auto shops.  It worked pretty well:

http://www.burnveg.com/forum/about848.html


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## boilermanjr (Aug 3, 2011)

Feeling much better about waste vegetable oil, but don't know anything about making it burn clean.  Sorry for jumping to the conclusion that you were talking about motor oil.


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## nate379 (Aug 4, 2011)

That's how I get rid of my waste oil... dump it in the burn barrel when I burn the trash.


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## Badfish740 (Aug 4, 2011)

NATE379 said:
			
		

> That's how I get rid of my waste oil... dump it in the burn barrel when I burn the trash.



Haven't we had this argument before?


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## nate379 (Aug 5, 2011)

Probably not, have no idea who you are even.


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## Badfish740 (Aug 5, 2011)

NATE379 said:
			
		

> Probably not, have no idea who you are even.



Not you and I specifically, I just remember some thread from a while back about the merits of burning trash, waste motor oil, etc...in wood stoves and boilers.  Some folks think its great, some folks think its evil incarnate...


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## nate379 (Aug 6, 2011)

It's either burn it at home for free or pay to have it thrown in a pile on the ground... dunno which is the worse of the 2, but I usually vote with my wallet on stuff like that.  For the stuff that doesn't burn or would be too nasty to burn ( like old tires, batteries, etc) I bring to work and toss in that dumpster.


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## North of 60 (Aug 6, 2011)

NATE379 said:
			
		

> It's either burn it at home for free or pay to have it thrown in a pile on the ground... dunno which is the worse of the 2, but I usually vote with my wallet on stuff like that. For the stuff that doesn't burn or would be too nasty to burn ( like old tires, batteries, etc) I bring to work and toss in that dumpster.



Emerald Services is one that will happily take your used oil it in Palmer AK. It doesnt get dumped on the ground either.
You are making it sound like your in the middle of nowhere and AK is a big dump and wont affect anyone.  Maybe one day you will have children.


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## woodchip (Aug 6, 2011)

You don't see much waste veg oil round here. 

Most people filter it and mix it with diesel for use it in their trucks and vans.

Many a time I've stopped at lights and smelt a nice fish and chip shop nearby to find out it's an old panel van nearby burning old veg oil  ;-)


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## ihookem (Aug 7, 2011)

I have an eko 25 and have put a few ounces at a time on a flat log in the stove. I'm sure it never hurts any. Last year I burned a few gallons. There is no smoke or dirt going out the chimney at all. The oil steams up and gassifies. This is only a few ounces per load.


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## ssupercoolss (Aug 11, 2011)

you guys must think a waste oil burner's stack looks like something from a 1970's era mack.  it doesnt.  trust me.  i burn 100's of gallons a year.


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## boilermanjr (Aug 11, 2011)

I don't think that anybody in this string was contemplating the use of a dedicated waste oil burner in written responses.  The string started with talk of a vegetable oil burner retrofit into a wood boiler then spun its way into talk of waste oil of various types and various ways of burning it.  

At any rate, I'm not sure that a lack of visible carbon indicates that transparent exhaust from a dedicated engine oil burner is especially benign.  I'll be the first to admit that I am suspicious of the exhaust from waste engine oil burners, but I have zero idea about the relative benefits of burning the oil in a dedicated machine vs. doing whatever else is done with waste oil.  It strikes me that just like biomass burning, burning waste engine oil can be a nasty proposition.  I suppose some waste oil is contaminated with chemicals and such that would make it like the wood burning equivalent of burning railroad ties soaked in creosote.  Isn't it hard to control the purity of waste engine oil?  Waste engine oil seems like an inherently easy medium for use as a disposal cover for all sorts of hazardous chemicals.  Does anybody out there have experience with this?  Is waste engine oil or the burners regulated?  Is there any evidence that waste engine oil burners are, self-benefitting purposes aside, a good way to dispose of waste engine oil?  What are the relative benefits and costs?


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## ssupercoolss (Aug 12, 2011)

Does anybody out there have experience with this?

stop at your local car dealer and look in the service bay for heaters attached to the cieling with a class A pipe coming out of it.  i gaurantee you 80% of the larger car dealers are burning waste oil.  

as far as contamination in motor oil, i dont know what you would contaminate it with other than anti-freeze.  you do have to be careful not to put "other" things in your tank as waste oil heater are finiky, and only like to burn "clean" waste oil.  anything less and they give you headaches.  

are they regulated?  no government official stops by with a clipboard and a pocket protector, but the unit is serviced and maintained excactly the same as a fuel oil burner.  

i think most people would be suprised how many waste oil burners are in use.  waste oil burners arent something you get out of the back of popular mechanics magazine.  

its funny to me that a waste oil burner comes under fire at a wood burning site......i guess we all forgot how much love the OWB gets.  i can tell you that the smell (or lack there of) of stuff coming out of the stack of my waste oil burner is nothing compared to standing next to my buddys OWB.  dont get me wrong....i love burning wood and am not trying to stir the pot.

read up.  http://cleanburn.com/


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## salecker (Aug 12, 2011)

Hi
 I burn about 3000 gls wast oil a winter in my shop.I have a reznor wast oil furnace.I'v been using it for 11 yrs.At the time i bought it it complied to all EPA regs and was cleaner burning than an oil burner,or so the factory said.It was a bit of a learning curve,but after 10 yrs i have a good handle on how it works and can tell when it needs cleaning ect.The unit i have dosn't need any special clean oil.I'v burnt every kind of oil or old diesel or old gas in it and it works fine.I'v even pumped some water into it,gear lube that had water,and never seperated befor it froze.You could tell the water was coming through mad for some neat flames.
 I would buy a Reznor again,I have about 3 yrs of oil stockpiled now.If i had the $$ i'd buy a reznor boiler for backup for my wood boiler.
 Oh BTW you never see any smoke from the chimany.
 Thomas


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## salecker (Aug 12, 2011)

Hi
 I burn about 3000 gls wast oil a winter in my shop.I have a reznor wast oil furnace.I'v been using it for 11 yrs.At the time i bought it it complied to all EPA regs and was cleaner burning than an oil burner,or so the factory said.It was a bit of a learning curve,but after 10 yrs i have a good handle on how it works and can tell when it needs cleaning ect.The unit i have dosn't need any special clean oil.I'v burnt every kind of oil or old diesel or old gas in it and it works fine.I'v even pumped some water into it,gear lube that had water,and never seperated befor it froze.You could tell the water was coming through mad for some neat flames.
 I would buy a Reznor again,I have about 3 yrs of oil stockpiled now.If i had the $$ i'd buy a reznor boiler for backup for my wood boiler.
 Oh BTW you never see any smoke from the chimany.
 Thomas


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## buddha (Aug 23, 2011)

boilermanjr said:
			
		

> I don't think that anybody in this string was contemplating the use of a dedicated waste oil burner in written responses.  The string started with talk of a vegetable oil burner retrofit into a wood boiler then spun its way into talk of waste oil of various types and various ways of burning it.



My goal is to burn waste oil in addition to wood.  My hope is to reduce the amount of wood burned and the number of times I need to fill it by spraying oil on the wood or coals when the blower kicks on.  

I have read that waste motor oil can have some very fine heavy metals that can pollute when burned if not filtered.  It sounds like all you have to do is dump it through a cheap fine particle filter.  Waste veggie oil should be filtered too, but it is mostly to get the food chunks (garlic) out so it doesnt gum up the works..


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## ihookem (Aug 23, 2011)

I like the idea. Ya just dump it in a oil container! No cutting, splitting, stacking, drying, and reloading every 8 hrs. Wouldn't that be nice?


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## pybyr (Aug 24, 2011)

There is or was a YahooGroup called something like AltFuelFurnace where the various members have LOTS of practical experience adapting common Beckett-type oil combustion "guns" to run on used veg oil or any number of other things; one guy (now unfortunately deceased) who I was indirectly acquainted with actually heated his home for a spell with an immense quantity of rancid butter that he'd been given for free, warmed to flow in a iquid state...  

The technology- using an aspiration nozzle with compressed air... is all entirely do-able IF you really are willing to roll up your sleeves and also to learn the parameters and really dial in the combustion variables.

I really wanted to do this and dug deeply into it and even amassed most of the pieces, only to discover that where I live, with a small, relatively health-conscious population (relatively little fried food compared to most places) and a local organic farm having locked in nearly every grease source for miles around to make biodiesel for equipment and greenhouse furnaces... the supply/ demand curve just doesn't work here.


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