| Barrels as Tanks |
| I have read about and seen first hand how people use steel barrels to process biodiesel and I continually marvel at their talent. I depend so heavily on my ability to see through my tanks, I cannot imagine doing it "blind" using a steel tank. So my hat is off to all those biodieselers out there who process biodiesel in steel barrels. I know steel barrel biodiesel processing is common but I decided to write this web site based on my personal experience and therefore I am going to talk about polyethylene barrels, not steel barrels. I am not biased against steel barrels-just inexperienced with them. Enough said. |
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It's advantageous to see through the walls of the barrel and witness the settling and separating that goes on during the biodiesel process. I like the "white" polyethylene 55-gallon barrels. Not only do they look cool (they have a very clean look to them and I think they make my operation look more "medical"), they have the added benefit of being see-through. My barrels originally held balsamic vinegar and when I bought them ($10 each), they were quite discolored inside. The good thing is balsamic vinegar washes out with soap and water and the barrels come completely clean with a scratch pad and some dish washing soap. Whatever your bio barrels held originally, make sure you can clean it out thoroughly or you may have some very undesirable substances going through your vehicle's fuel system. |
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| To gain access to the barrel interior, I first turn them upside down and cut the bottoms out leaving a 3" border all the way around the bottom. I use a reciprocating saw to make the cut. The 3" border helps stop the fuel from sloshing and spilling when I roll a full barrel around on a cart. I use a piece of 60 grit sand paper to deburr the raw cut edge. It prevents cuts to my hands and tears to my Nitrile gloves. Once the bottom is cut out and the opening deburred, I get my scratch pad and some dish washing soap, dive headfirst into the barrel and start scrubbing away. When I'm finished, I have a perfectly clean tank that I can see through easily, ready for processing biodiesel. |
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| This is the basic design of all my settling/drying/washing tanks. The barrel is turned upside down, the bottom is cut out and plumbing is added to the barrel bungs. Notice the plumbing with a stand pipe (bottom left side) and the other bung with no stand pipe. |
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| Plumbing is necessary to move biodiesel into and out of the new barrel. Fortunately, polyethylene barrels have two threaded bung holes in the head. The holes are not the same. One has a fine threaded plug and the other has a course threaded plug. Both plugs have a ¾" female threaded hole which has a plug covering it. If you want to plumb your polyethylene tanks you must cut the plug out covering the ¾" female threaded hole. I use a razor knife and carefully cut down at an angle all the way around the plug. Once the plug breaks free, I use the razor knife to trim and shave the opening smooth being careful not to damage any of the threads. I apply pipe thread compound to the threads of two ¾" close nipples and screw them into each of the bung plugs as far as they will go. On the "LOW" side of the tank ("LOW" refers to the level of the pipe protruding into the interior of the barrel) nothing more is required on the inside of the bung plug. On the "HIGH" side of the tank, you will need to add a stand pipe. If you look closely at the second bung plug, you will notice the close nipple threads protrude past the inside of the bung plug about 3/8" - ½". This is good. Screw a ¾" coupler to the exposed threads and tighten the best you can without damaging the bung plug. Then screw the stand pipe to the pipe coupler. The stand pipe should be 4" to 8" long-that's plenty. The stand pipe protrudes above the sediment that separates and settles to the bottom of the tank. Use the "LOW" side of the tank to drain off the water and debris. Use the "HIGH" side (with the stand pipe) to drain nothing but the good stuff. We take full advantage of the natural way water and debris sink to the bottom and oil floats to the top. |
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This is an isolation of the barrel base. Of course the plumbing can be aimed any direction you like but for the purposes of the drawing, this demonstrates the basic setup. Here you can see the stand pipe side (the HIGH side) of the base compared to the other side (the LOW side).
The LOW side allows complete tank drainage. The HIGH side allows drainage of fuel/oil floating on top of water. |
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