Waste Oil in a Wood Gassifier?

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jhunter19

Member
Feb 5, 2010
18
Central NY
Has anyone thought of a way to burn waste oil in their wood gassification boiler? I was wondering what would happen if I soaked wood in oil prior to placing in the unit. 4x per year I end up with 5-6 gals of oil from DYI oil changes, it would be nice to be able to reclaim this energy rather than give it back to the oil companies. I doubt that Exon-Mobile would miss it.
 
jhunter19 said:
Has anyone thought of a way to burn waste oil in their wood gassification boiler? I was wondering what would happen if I soaked wood in oil prior to placing in the unit. 4x per year I end up with 5-6 gals of oil from DYI oil changes, it would be nice to be able to reclaim this energy rather than give it back to the oil companies. I doubt that Exon-Mobile would miss it.

I have an RSF 100 wood furnace (obviously not what you mentioned) BUT I often soak kindling in waste oil that comes from my waste oil filtering process. It starts very well, burns hot, but SMOKES like an old tire. I would hesitate, if I was you, as your gasifier would likely end up starving for primary air and / or killing the lambda sensor more quickly than with straight wood. It does, however, start fires really well.

Regards.
 
I rake up my wood chips from cutting the logs up and add some waste oil to them in a cardboard box and I use a few handfuls when i light the fire.

Rob
 
jhunter19 said:
Has anyone thought of a way to burn waste oil in their wood gassification boiler? I was wondering what would happen if I soaked wood in oil prior to placing in the unit. 4x per year I end up with 5-6 gals of oil from DYI oil changes, it would be nice to be able to reclaim this energy rather than give it back to the oil companies. I doubt that Exon-Mobile would miss it.

I would tread cautiously on this one!!! If you are in gassification mode, use a very small piece when your wood charge is almost gone, and if you see that your boiler is starving for air, open your SMOKE FLAP AND POSSIBLY EVEN YOUR LOADING DOOR !!!! If the results are good, proceed a little at a time.

If I did this in our boiler, it would have the same effect as dropping in a stick of DYNAMITE.
Again tread cautiously on this one!!!
 
Ask around. Plenty of garages that will take waste oil. I have a neighbor that has a welding shop. He heats with it. He gave me a 15 gal poly container. It goes back to him maybe twice a year. I give it to him, he hands me an empty one.

We're both happy.

JP
 
I do exactly the same as taxidermist. I have used up all my old motor oil this way as a starter helper. It burns hot so I don't use a large amount at once.
 
I use sawdust/ diesel or waste oil as a start too. But I also use waste oil & diesel in my sawmill as a blade cleaner. And I run waste oil in my chainsaw as bar oil. Have done for years. Works great & is "free" Never had any problems, but then I also run diesel through the sump once and a while too....
 
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