Separating water from oil without a heat source?

[Stan Leschert]

In Florida, I would just use a black drum for heat.
You can get a cheap 12 V pump to run it through your strainers a couple of times,
and then push it through some progressively smaller Racors.

I wouldn't use an immersion heater, you want to heat to medium, not boil it!

On your solar heating drum, tap in a spigot about 4 in from the bottom.
That should allow you to drain product, not waste.

Run it through a couple times if you have to.

Do a search, many others have done this before.
You can learn from their mistakes, and not have to repeat them ....
Unless you are really stubborn!

 

[cpf240]

What u guys do with that water? I drain some oil off and take it to city oil disposal.

Run it through a Berkey water filter and make Texas Tea with it?

 

[atbhaack]

seperating water from oil with out a heat sourse?

So just shows u cannot trust any oil. The oil at my hobby shop that me and a couple guys have was susposed to only be oil and ATF. We have seperate drum for other. Well I trusted it and dump 10 gallons of diesel into it stired it up and sucked it dry. Then couple mins later truck dies. Think oh got some life out of Thoese filters. Well when pulled I seem green. Almost ten gallons seperated off. So my lesson, don't trust any oil. Luckly just got little more wear on my parts.

 

[Blind Driver]

If you can wait with the contaminated oil, let it set out in freezing weather to freeze the water in the bottom. This also traps any contaminants in the ice. You can then pour off the oil with no fear of any water coming out with it.
Regards Marti

That method will take until late Spring to work.

My water separates out of the oil normally in a week when it's at least 60* outside.
Now that Winter is here, I'm going to wait until the middle of Spring before I try to do any filtering. I have enough dewatered and 'fuged fuel to last me until Fall.

 

[heavymetal land]

i have been burning waste oil for years and i sold waste oil heaters,mr. gravity is you best friend ,also i would let my suspect oil drums freeze in the winter and would have a nice block of ice at the bottom !

 

[Stretch44875]

I've seperated fuel oil and water, by letting it freeze.

 

[cnordway]

diesel 911?

 

[Lextreme]

Perzactly! Got the same setup. Best part is it's all free, tanks and sunshine. Only cost me pickup expenses and a leftover can of black paint.

A question for all you expert. Why pick the tote with black paint?

 

[LowTech]

Re: seperating water from oil with out a heat sourse?

Are you asking why paint it black ?
If so, it's because it absorbs more heat . . . solar gain.

And we, or at least me, have a metal tank that I use to separate.

 

[bigugh20]

Depending on the volume of oil you have recirculate some gas in it. Thats the fastest way to separate the water. Drops right to the bottom of the tank, then drain.

alright to my understanding their is condensed water, which will sink to the bottom and their is evaporated or dissolved water mixed in the oil. Will the dissolved water separate on its own and sink to the bottom?

also can you lit a fire under the barrel? its heat but its not electric. and maybe after the the condensed water is out that way you only boil off the dissolved.

or a third option is i have no idea what im saying?

Islandguydon is correct. If you have oil with emulsified water in it, and do not have a heat source, gas will thin the oil and break the detergent in it. The water will sink to the bottom overnight. Do an experiment with a gallon jug with some oil in it, pour some water in and shake vigorously to mix it into a milky froth. Let that set and see how long it takes to separate on it's own. You'll be waiting for a long time, now pour about 10% by volume gas into the jug and it will almost immediately start to separate. After less than 24 hours it will be almost completely separated, perhaps with a milky layer in between the oil and the water. Now the coolest part, come back in a month and the water layer will be very dark as the carbon deposits in the oil have started to fall out.

 

[Roddyo]

Islandguydon is correct. If you have oil with emulsified water in it, and do not have a heat source, gas will thin the oil and break the detergent in it. The water will sink to the bottom overnight. Do an experiment with a gallon jug with some oil in it, pour some water in and shake vigorously to mix it into a milky froth. Let that set and see how long it takes to separate on it's own. You'll be waiting for a long time, now pour about 10% by volume gas into the jug and it will almost immediately start to separate. After less than 24 hours it will be almost completely separated, perhaps with a milky layer in between the oil and the water. Now the coolest part, come back in a month and the water layer will be very dark as the carbon deposits in the oil have started to fall out.

What about the gas? Does it stay mixed in the oil?

 

[bigugh20]

Re: seperating water from oil with out a heat sourse?

What about the gas? Does it stay mixed in the oil?

Yep. The ethyl alcohol will mix with any water that it can find and drop out of suspension. But the gasoline itself will stay mixed. Try the experiment.

 

[Beyond Biodiesel]

Im trying to figure out a way to seperate water from oil with No heat sourse!
I have a situation that my cleaning source has no power, (no economical)distance from power.
Any help would be appreciated!

I regularly blend gasoline with WVO, and leave it to settle for at least 24 hours. After 24hours of settling I find all of the water in the WVO has settled out. I have been doing that method for 6 years, and find it works just fine for making waste oil blended diesel fuel for my diesel engine.

 

[DeucesWild11]

This is great news for me as I just got a bunch of gas (40 or so gallons) mixed with some seawater from a flooded truck. I have been adding that to my WMO to thin it out. Nice to hear the added benefit of adding the gas!

I would assume salt water would also settle to the bottom?

 

[rolling18]

Oh, one other thing just occurred to me... I think I heard Chief over at Old Grouch surplus say that you could use one of those military surplus immersion oil-fired heaters too. The ones that sit in a 55 gallon drum. No need for power, and is supposed to run on a number of different fuels.

That is what I use also.. they are fired by gasoline, you can use diesel but it does not work as well, and much harder to start.
what I DONT KNOW .. is how hot and how long to heat the oil???

 

[Beyond Biodiesel]

This is great news for me as I just got a bunch of gas (40 or so gallons) mixed with some seawater from a flooded truck. I have been adding that to my WMO to thin it out. Nice to hear the added benefit of adding the gas!

I would assume salt water would also settle to the bottom?

I have not tried it, but I see no reason why salt water would not precipitate out of WVO, from adding gasoline, and I would think that gasoline that is contaminated with sea water would just drop the sea water after a day of settling.

 

[DeucesWild11]

Thanks that was my thought as well I didn't think the salt would affect it any differently

 

[Tplane37]

Sea Water + Fuel

I would be careful with the salt water contaminated gasoline. I'd find a way to do some sort of testing before running it in my truck.

The only reason I say this is because (1) Salt water rises above Fresh water (I think...it separates from fresh water at least), (2) The salt is disolved in the salt water, so it's not a solid you can see by holding it to the light anymore, and (3) Back in the day, before the EPA and OSHA, the US Navy would mix sea water with pig's blood for firefighting on board the ship, this mix would create a foam that would smother a Class Bravo fire (fuel/petroleum fire) by floating on top of the fuel to isolate the fuel from the oxygen, so it effectively remove two components from the fire triangle... fuel and oxygen, and the cold sea water undoubtedly reduced the heat as well. Today, we call a synthetic version of sea water + pigs blood "AFFF" or "Aqueous Foam Forming Film." AFFF replaced the older, cruder version because if the mix was off, and they had to much sea water and not enough blood, the sea water would hit the fire and create a poisonous gas that was killing sailors that were fighting the fires. This could end up coming out of your exhaust stack.

I could be wrong and over reacting, but knowing the above is enough to make me want to consider finding a way to test the sea water contaminated fuel, or at least find out if dissolved Sodium has any ill effects on the engine or fuel system. Who knows, the sea water could be helping the process some how, but I would want to check further.

 

[FireFighterHill]

Salt water DOES NOT rise above fresh water. Salt water SINKS. If you took a sealed bag of water which has dissolved salts in it, put it in a bucket of fresh water it will sink to the bottom. The reason is because it is DENSER then fresh water. The opposite is true also, you can float a sealed bag of fresh water in salt water. This is basic scientific fact, not opinion. A quick FYI A.F.F.F. stands for Aqueous Film Forming Foam. The foam you are referring to is not AFFF, it is Protein Foam. I have attached a PDF file that discusses the differences in various fire fighting foams.

 

[Tplane37]

Re: Separating water from oil with out a heat sourse?

Salt water DOES NOT rise above fresh water. Salt water SINKS. If you took a sealed bag of water which has dissolved salts in it, put it in a bucket of fresh water it will sink to the bottom. The reason is because it is DENSER then fresh water. The opposite is true also, you can float a sealed bag of fresh water in salt water. This is basic scientific fact, not opinion. A quick FYI A.F.F.F. stands for Aqueous Film Forming Foam. The foam you are referring to is not AFFF, it is Protein Foam. I have attached a PDF file that discusses the differences in various fire fighting foams.

It's been almost 10 years since my classes on the AFFF, so I figured I had the words for the abbreviation off a bit (I swapped "foam" and "film" several times before posting). Also, I remembered that salt water and fresh water separated, but couldn't remember which direction each went.

And I was referring to both AFFF as well as Protein Foam. AFFF replaced the Protein Foam on Naval Ships a long time ago, one of the reasons was due to the toxic gases released when sea water flashes to steam. That would be my biggest concern, and for wanting to ensure that no sea water remains in the final fuel being consumed by the truck.

Thanks for the refresher on the AFFF and sea water densities.