Great Don Thank you much, hope we can hook up again soon. I am building my new 300 gallon multitask heating tank. Im hoping to be able to successfully be able to burn glycerin using a babbington burner configuration. I equipped this tank with a 9" steel pipe that comes out the front and inside the tank takes a 90 deg turn up then reduces to 6" pipe before it exits out of the top of the tank for the flue pipe. The 9" steel pipe will be the burn chamber. the front of the pipe has a flange welded on it with a cover so i can clean out any ash. The cover plate is made to accept any standard #2 diesel oil or waste motor oil burner in the event i can't get the babbington to work like I want it to. I will line the 9" steel pipe with a Stainless Steel tube to fit snug and that should give me long life fire chamber. If i knew how to post pics here I would.

 

Im hoping that raising the temperature of the glycerin to 190-200 degrees before it flows over the babbington nozzle will give me good combustion.

If i can use glycerin as a fuel here this tank will also be used to recover methanol. I will automate it more so I don't have to monitor it so often....or will set up a remote video cameras so i don't have to physically check it.

 

I built both a "Turk" burner, and a Babington burner. The Turk burner was more forgiving about using "crappy" oil, but was a real pain to start, and a real pain to clean. The babington I built required too much filtration of the fuel ( yes, even glycerol) and I had to add a small propane head to keep it from going out.

I've seen and heard about to many fires of bio processors to ever use a flame to process with. If I was going to use some type of burner for process heat I would build a boiler, heat it with a suitable burner, and move it at least 50' from my processor!

My new system will take advantage of something we have in abundance here, SUNSHINE! I did some testing last summer using "Pex" tubing. I found that I could produce temps in excess of 200 deg F. I used clean WVO for the fluid so there is no reason to drain it in the winter.



NEVER NEVER use any kind of flame around a still! Methanol is heaver than air and will concentrate on the floor. Once it reaches a flame.....................I could see the explosion from my house...........

Posting pics is easy. The best way is to upload your pics to a host site ( like Photobucket) for free! Then add the links to your post. Lots more info here: User Gallery & Picture Display Help - Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums

 

I hear ya Don...Im crazy I guess and lucky so far as I was using three thirty gallon drum stills sitting on top of turkey cookers burning propane. I have recovered over 10-55 gallon drums of methanol already off the system running it full flame. That is one of the reasons i built this bigger tank with firebox running through the liquid. Just have to make sure all the welds are sealed good...will fill the tank first with water to make sure there is no leaks to the firebox...if there is some small pin hole will add waterglass to the water to seal em up...once sealed they will never leak. When i was using the turkey cooker stills i always left the garage door opened for ventilation. Once when it was about done the temps were hitting 190+ ...i cracked open the ball valve I put at side bottom of the can to drain off some of the glycerin into a bucket....well what happened next was an experience from hell, the glycerin spurted out under a lil pressure and instantly ignited as it was also squirting straight out on the legs of my overalls. So it was a stream of fire like a flame thrower soaking my coverall pant legs. I quickly slammed the valve back shut and the hot glycerin did not stay lit thank god or i would have been on fire. I walked away with no burns and the glycerin never soaked through far enough to reach my jeans underneath the overalls.

 

I've known you were crazy for years Mike! J/K hehe...........Your DAMN lucky..........I had a fire once years ago in my processor. Scared me so bad I've been working on making things as safe as I can.

Believe me, I've seen some scary systems. And more fires from other processors than I care to think about...............

 

Yes Safety first, its not worth saving money making bio-diesel if you lose the farm or your health or worse doing it. I seen a bio-diesel video where the guy was stressing safety and then recommending wearing one of those funky dust masks as if that would stop the metyl-hydroxide fumes from being inhaled. Those fumes will go right through a dust mask. VERY DANGEROUS

 

Ended up the element had been eaten through at 15 batches.

 

Now stop and think what COULD have happend ( especially if left untended ) External heating is the safest way.........................

 

It was an eye opener... Need to build a unit to recover methanol off the glycerine also. So we are talking about using a band heater wrapped around a barrel kind of setup?

 

Band heaters work great, but are expensive. I use stove-top elements UNDER the tanks. I wish I had a picture to show ya but I don't............

I welded a recessed "can" under the tank, installed the element, than insulated the crap out of it. I've only had one element burn out in thousands of gallons. If one does burn out I can change it out in minutes without draining the tank.

 

I get the picture, sounds pretty slick!