Hey wanted to see what others are doing with waste oil at the moment. When oil prices were sky high a few years ago we had it unloaded for $0.50/ Gallon to us! Now the same people want to charge me to come out and get it. Anybody got any cheap good ideas? Oil furnace, trade to someone with oil furnace, and etc? Please no dumb answers like "put it on the road" We have S everal barrels full.
The last 10 years we've given ours to a local workshop, instead of paying to have it taken away. But that place is now new houses, so we're considering getting a oil furnace of some type for ourselves. For now we're just saving it up.
I have nice clean reliable propane heat in my shop. But I have 3 dealer shops that fight for my waste oil, and will send a truck out to pick it up. No muss, no fuss, and no mess.
Every time I look at waste oil burners, they are $3,000 and it just doesn't get that cold here usually. That buys a lot of propane. Everyone I talk to that has a waste oil burner, says that they are finicky and they're always fixing. Plugged nozzels, air fuel/ oil mixture, antifreeze in the oil, igniters, etc. I've just been buying the big plastic totes that you can carry around with the forklift, and filling them up. I'll either end up with a waste oil burner, or find someone that has one and just give it to them. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if I buy oil someplace, don't they now have to accept used oil? The local oriellys stores all have a tank now. I could just drop off a tote for them......
We get charged the safety clean truck fee for waste oil removal most peoplewould get charged on top of that but its a national acct for us
The shop in the quarry where I worked for the last at least 30 years used "used oil furnaces" for heat. Had two 500,000 BTU units! Usually one was enough to keep a comfortable temp except when wind was strong, roll up doors big enough to drive a 773 G through and a ceiling height enough to raise same trucks dump body full up can be rough on heating system! Ours were CleanBurn brand and I won't say they were trouble free but about 80% of the problems I put off to poor control of what oil was dumped in the "Used Oil" tank. I really don't think they are supposed to be used to run on 80W-90 gear oil which many times would get into the tank. I'm thinking that in NC your need for heat is nowhere what it is up here in Central NY so might not be worth the upfront cost and maintenance required. You may have noticed I used the words "used oil" and not the "w" word! At least in our company we were told that if you marked a barrel with the "w" word and the wrong person say it it could cause all kinds of extra problems EPA or some other government organization. If we had oil that was contaminated somehow that we did not want to put it through the furnace, say antifreeze fro bad cooler or very dirty or ground up metal, we always just marked it as Un-burnable USED OIL and never had a problem!
Out here I used to have a guy that picked it up and sold to the ships that came into the ports. They would burn it when they got outside of our territorial waters. I think he went away because some law was changed but I'm not sure. Out here local pick up service uses a sniffer to sample air from the top of the tank before they pick it up. Things like brake clean will make the alarm go off and then the pick up people want thousands of dollars to decontaminate your waste oil and tanks. I got where I just left the cover off the tank for a day or so before they came to get the oil. Then I found out that they don't decontaminate anything. They just dump the oil into a bigger tank which drops the percentage of contamination down below limits and they treat you like you are poisoning the world. I used another service after that who used a different sniffer and it never showed any contamination. Just another pollution racket to screw an unknowing business and public.
Depending on the amount you generate, maybe a centrifuge like I’ve seen advertised and make your own black diesel fuel? I’ve put hydraulic oil and cleanish used crankcase oil in my old 310 and 450 Deeres and it was just fine aside from maybe a little shorter fuel filter life.
Not sure how large your barrels are, but have you tried to advertise them in the local newspaper, or on craigslist, free to a good home. Around here they are plenty of places that take it for free, but with insurance companies clamping down on waste oil burners and forcing many larger shops to get rid of them, and fire marshals are also stepping up and forcing business's to get rid of not only the oil burners, but stock piles of waste oil as well, the next few years might get interesting on dealing with used oil if they don't have a place that will take it for free. I've also heard there are places that are now charging quite a bit to come get used oil, where they used to pay the person for the oil. Before I'd recommend buying a waste oil burner, I'd ask a lot of questions to your insurance company and city or township reps to see if they plan on banning them in the upcoming years, might want to ask the local fire marshal as well, it would sure hurt to buy a waste oil furnace and not allowed to use it for more than a couple years. Free to any home is your best bet, just not sure what or who you have near you that wants or needs it.
Ask your oil supplier they will usually take it back Probably not as many furnaces down there in MN its easy to get someone to pick it up
We used to get paid for it. Now they charge us to pick it up. I have a handy racket going at my shop....same company that picks it up in Joplin has a truck down here in Ne OK. He swings by every 3-4 months and sucks up what I have. I don't know if he adds it to the ** bill, somebody else's bill or just does it.....I've yet to see a bill!!
Not waste oil related but ran in to a situation last summer loading some old natural gas boilers out of a factory . We moved the boilers out & loaded them on the scrap trailer . Iron scrapper comes back about a week later with a story the boilers were radioactive & had to go to extra trouble removing the contaminated iron from them ........ I looked at the CEO of the company and we were both thinking the same thing . " BS"! CEO says ... " you know , all we wanted were the boilers removed & hauled to the scrap yard " . " If ya don't want to pay us for the scrap iron just say so up front " " No need to lay down some long BS story about why you don't want to pay us for the scrap iron value " .
We have a local guy that picks it up for free. I hear he's putting a real dent into safety kleen. He'll even bring a shop a barrel or a tote.
I don't run into more than about 5 gals/year, so I just save it up, and use it in the woodstove, in the shop, starts fires real good...
Hmm.. Old doug has problems getting rid of old tires, I've got some waste oil, its been cloudy and dark- rainy- weather here a lot lately, No, no , no- you can't think things like that anymore...........
Well my dad said his dad on the farm up in Minnesota back in the 1930's had a good way to drive the chill out of the farmhouse on cold mornings. He tossed a couple chunks of cut up tires in the wood-stove. Another thing that helped heat the house was the wood stove was in the living room at the east end of the house and the stove pipe from the stove went across the room up near the ceiling to the west end of the house to get to the chimney for the kitchen wood stove! Being a two story house that helped warm the upstairs. How they never burned that old house down I don't know!
I've heated my shop with waste oil over 20 years, this is my 2nd Clean Burn furnace. Pretty trouble free over 10100 hrs. Usually use around 600 gallons per season, heating a 36 x 64 x 10' ceiling insulated area. Kept at 62 minimum. Getting the oil is not hard, several hardcore diy'er friends, farmer friends and a local school system bus garage. I've got it from the bus garage for so long, nobody knows they even have it....lol. Ed
TD25C, all the scrap yards here have radiation detectors right at the scale as you pull on, if the load is has any in it, the whole load is rejected, as in it goes to the hazmat center and its so much a pound to dispose of it, and yes the seller is paying the bill. If they can figure out what on the load is giving it off, they have lately been unloading and trying to sort it out and then run the stuff they feel isn't radioactive back through the sensor again, but the seller is billed for all of this and in the end, the seller pays the scrap yard not the other way around. In order to eliminate this, we've been taking our own stuff down, if the load is "hot" we bring it back home and try to sort it ourselves, the scrap yard will tell you what is normally hot and just sort those items back out and load it again and drive it back to the scrap yard to try the sensor again. That sensor is so sensitive even the driver themselves can't have gone through any radiation treatments for cancer in the last year or more or they'll set off the sensor as they drive through the scale. Its not all BS, the reason for this is to keep anything radioactive out of the shredder and out of the press that bales the scrap and off the loads headed to the foundries, because if they hit the foundry and there's even one chunk of radioactive metal in the whole load, it'll set off the detectors and the whole load is rejected, once shredded and baled, then that whole load goes to hazmat and its so much a pound to dispose of it, far more expensive than the value of the load of scrap in disposal fee's alone. All the scrap yard is trying to do is obey the law and not be held responsible for someone else's radioactive stuff and have to pay that high disposal fee.
I know this is "bass-ackwards" but my old company didn't generate enough oil during the year to run the 2 waste oil heaters & we ended up begging for it.. You'd be surprised how cold Charleston gets in the winter.. granted its short term.. but still cold.
Crane Operator, I'm told that after dark, those laws no longer apply like they do in the daylight, and for future reference, you never lit the fire, your only controlling it so it doesn't get out of hand and the fire department doesn't have to come.
I usually just burn it in the outdoor furnace. Pour half gallon on the wood when filling in the morning and at night. My grandfather did the same thing with the airtight in his shop.
In April the County allows unrestricted burning of debris (timber) without a permit. I just throw the used oil on the burn piles as I burn them. The piles are usually a little wet so the oil helps. Much on the environmental clean up is a racket as you say. It's all about making a fortune moving pollution from point A to point B. When I worked on offshore gas platforms, back in the 80's we injected contaminated or unsalable products into dead oil/gas wells and eventually cemented those wells. Then laws were passed and we had to put it in transporters, load them on boats and take them to the beach and pay a company a very large sum to take it. That company would take the product to a dead oil/gas well and inject it and eventually cement it. Look into asbestos removal and it's even more ridiculous.
I know of one guy who had a shop at home and he heated it with wood. but to dispose of his used oil he had a simple set up. 55 gallon drum set up a bit higher than the wood stove and across the back of the shop from the stove. He then ran a 3/8 copper line from the bottom off the drum over to the wood stove. Installed a inline valve in the copper tubing and once wood fire was up and running good he would open the valve just enough to let it drip in to the fire but not so much it would cause any noticeable smell or smoke. Just had to remember to turn off the valve before leaving the shop!
Usedter burn them in a 60' tall silo, only clue was all them cows layin around the silo, to keep warm...
I did the oil dripper thing for years in the early days. Worked great. Around here everybody has oil burners but not enough of their own oil so I get a buck a gallon out of em. It pays for half of my LP shop heat!
When dripping oil into a woodstove, does the drip delivery tube run right into the stove, or stop short somewhere above it and somehow drip down from a distance ( through a hole into the stove, funnel, etc). My dad used to mention doing this, but I've forgotten this detail. I'm thinking the pipe runs into the stove, but thought id better check.
The one's I've seen that use the drip method have a copper pipe that runs directly into the stove, some actually put a steel plate in the stove for it to land on as a "hot plate" that it burns on top of, Others just have it land on the wood.
Oh yes you can...!! A story of 100+ worn out truck tyres, a few gallons of diesel/used oil plus an old industrial chimney springs to mind ........
I have about 25 gallons a year and give it to the local napa store or boat repair business. My in law in Indiana usually produced around 100 a year and had a real hard time finding someone to take it. Had to take in gallon jugs a little at a time which was rough. Found a place in Paoli which will take but has to take it to them.
I live out in the country w/ no trash p-up.. Everyone has to take their trash to the "solid waste disposal site"..[dump] A bin w/ a compactor for household trash & different large open containers labeled for "other" stuff.. But every 1 of the places around the State, have an oil recycling station.. A BIG 2 funnel container where you dump your used oil.. looks to be about a 500 gal container?? It "says"> NOT for commercial use.. but on numerous occasions I'v seen guys standing there, pouring in 5 gal pails.. I guess its better than pouring it out on the fields.??
I'll second that KY Petroleum Recyclers (Grade Lane) in Louisville will take all anyone want's to give, or at least that was the way it was a some years ago. Since then I've moved
Really appreciate all the replies. Still mulling over what to do, but leaning towards a setup like Kshansen and Crane operator describe. I need a wood stove in the shop anyways and have a couple empty metal barrels to get a drip setup together. Do you guys see any check valve or something similar necessary? Wondering what kind of fire hazard I'm creating in my shop with all those precious tools.
Insurance companies and shop wood stoves do not get along, They're afraid you will have the stove blazing with the door open while removing the rusty gas tank from a vehicle and spilling gas all over the place. Around here lots of people have wood stoves in their shops and I've never heard of anyone burning their shop down. Just have the firebox at least 30" off the floor because gasoline fumes sink.
One operating tip I can give is: as the oil warms up it gets thinner and flows faster. Don't turn the drip on and go for a long lunch. Had my wood stove cherry red a few times when I had it. now I just burn oil with a Clean burn furnace. 7500hrs on it with very few problems.
How do people who burn waste oil in stoves and furnaces deal with filtration? It seems like that would be a huge burden. Oily drain pans get dust and dirt in them and diesel engine soot in the oil clogs things up. Do you separate the water out before filtering the oil? If not, doesn't the crud always clog up the water drain valve?
Sorry about the length of this one got typing and thinking and lost track of what I was doing! Well I tried very hard to not get any water into the used oil that was going to heater! A few things that may have helped with out system. First as most of our service work is done during the warmer months here in NY as the quarry is more or lest shut down for winter months. That means most of the used oil generated sits for a good period of time in the outside storage tank. This means any dirt or water has time to settle to the bottom of the tank. Tried to make it a point to drain off the bottom of the tank, but that was not always done. Suction line in the outside tank was installed a few inches up to also keep out any settling crap. On the initial installation of used oil heaters we did experience problems with oil being too thick to pump inside in coldest days. To take care of this a 275 Gallon tank was installed in the shop as a "day tank". This was connected to the outside main storage tank with a separate pump controlled by a float switch in the "day tank". Now you have to recall that this set-up was for a shop heated by a pair of 500,000 BTU heaters so amount of used oil we were dealing with was much more than most shops may be dealing with. Each of these 500,000 BTU heaters had separate suction pumps and filters coming from the "day tank". I always felt the filters with the washout screens were on the small size for that size of heater as they were not a lot bigger than a large coffee mug. If I had the control of them I would have installed a pair of filter heads that took the same large spin on filters as we used on the Cat haul trucks along with some type of differential pressure gauges to let us know when they were stating to get plugged. I can imagine a few other things one could do to improve this set up. Like running one heat duct from the used oil heater to blow right at the "day tank" to "pre-heat the oil before it went to the filters on the way to the furnace. Or even having a circulating pump with filter hooked to the "day tank" to pre-filter the oil before heading to the furnace. But adding to the complication of the system might not be worth while if one had better control over what oil was dumped in to the system. Too many people at the quarry looked at our system a a "disposal system" and not a heating system. They seemed to think anything that "might" burn was fair game for dumping in the tank. Drain a crusher or speed reducer of oil that looks like metal flake paint you would use on a 1950's custom car that would get dumped in. Tearing down a machine and ten gallons of antifreeze drops in the drain pan for the engine oil that to could go in if I was not watching right along with the chunks of dirt off the frame!
KsHansen covered it pretty good. one thing I do with oil I get from neighbors is leave it outside in barrels. The water will freeze in the bottom. I leave it overnight in the shop than pump the oil off the top. the water will stay frozen in the barrel for a day or two sitting in the shop.
That's is another thing we would do! Kind of like a reverse still kind of thing. Only problem is if there is too much antifreeze in it! Then it would go in the "non-burnable" drum. if we didn't want to spend a lot of time with it. We did have a "dump station" in the shop made out of an old hydraulic tank from a Hough loader. It had a drain valve on the very bottom and the suction port for the "outside storage tank" was about a foot up so that was another place we could let the gravity separation work for us. One of our biggest problems was when we were low on used oil and one of our other plants had excess they would have the local oil supplier send a tanker truck to the other plant and pump right from their tank straight to our outside storage tank. We then had no real control over what we were getting.
Letting water freeze in the bottom of the drum could result in a ruptured drum and oil all over the place.
An old friend of ours used to be the manager of a waste oil plant/depot. Had a couple dozen or so large "silos" for holding oil, and a building for processing it. Had a tour there once (~20years ago) and it seemed they were basically heating it to above 100 degrees C to steam the water out, after which it was run through various filters. It was then saleable as heating oil, ie non waste! There was a constant stream of oily looking tankers on 5th wheels being dragged in, emptied and sent out with "product". Quite a business.
We never had a problem with that, but then we didn't have barrels that had 40 gallons of water and 15 gallons of oil sitting on the top. Now if say you had a barrel with 10 gallons of water in the bottom with the 9% expansion rate of water at freezing that would only add 0.9 gallons to the volume in the barrel and that might even be offset slightly by the fact that the oil in the barrel would at the same time be shrinking from the temperature dropping. Would I suggest filling a drum right to over flowing then cap it off and stick outside? NO! But if one was smart enough to leave a few inches for expansion at the top I doubt there would be a problem. On a somewhat side note never leave an oil barrel standing upright where water can collect on the top around the bungs. Even if it is a sealed from the refinery barrel water will get into the drum. This is especially true with hot sunny days and cool nights. Oil will expand from sitting in the sun or heat and force any air out. If there is water laying around the bungs when temperature drops at night and oil cools and will create a vacuum in the tank. this will pull water in past the bung gaskets. Maybe not enough in one or two nights to notice but over a summer you will find a good dose of water in the drum and an oily mess on top of the barrel.
I was referring to a radial rupture. If you had 15 gallons of water and 15 gallons of oil in a 55 gallon drum the diameter of the drum could increase at the bottom and split the drum. Water doesn't only expand vertically when it freezes, it expands in every direction and doesn't care if a little sheet metal is in the way.
I use waste oil to spray all my barns that are board and batten, works great, gives a nice color , preserves the wood, keeps the bugs out of the wood and no weeds around the perimeter. I use an airless paint sprayer with an extension rod for the higher areas and can do 95% plus from standing on the ground..and within a week there is no oil smell from the wood..
That got me to thinking...if they had to steam it out to remove moisture (seems costly), does that mean there is a significant amount of water dispersed in oil due to detergents?
3 things stand out in my memory of what our friend said. That the heating made it possible to filter it, that poor storage at a lot of places (as mentioned above about water finding it's way past seals etc) poor storage adds water, and also that antifreeze gets dumped into the oil, through engine repair or intentionally as a way of disposing it. I never saw how they heated it, but I assumed it was powered by the oil. They sure had a lot of it.
All I can say is we never saw that problem. I have see ice bend inch thick steel if it was trapped just right. Guess I need to do a little experiment next time I have an empty drum and the weather turns cold enough for a couple days. Fun with science! Wonder if using a soup can half full of water in the freezer over night would be a good test run? I'll just tell the wife that it was some guy who goes by the screen name of "Check" who had the idea!
It won't burst a soup can, yet I've seen it burst 1 1/2" schedule 40 pipe. But there are a lot of factors...the relationship between the thickness of the can and the diameter of the vessel or the ratio between the diameter and the depth of water, for example. Maybe a 55 gallon drum won't split from freezing, but I'd hate to deal with the mess if it did, especially if an environmentalist got involved.