Free Deisel Fuel From Crankcase Oil

Free Deisel Fuel From Crankcase Oil ENERGY Waste Oil 5-5-31 Used crankcase oil from your diesel tractors can be filtered, blended with diesel fuel and burned as fuel in your diesel tractors or other diesel engines. Trucking companies are taking advantage of this "free fuel" and interest is now spilling over into the farm market. "Farmers with diesel tractors can salvage a lot of free fuel from the used oil they drain from the engines of their diesel tractors and other diesel engines," says a spokesman for Racor Industries, Modesto, Cal. Racor sells a portable "refiner" which filters sludge and water from used crankcase oil. The filtered oil can then be mixed with diesel fuel at prescribed levels to provide "free" fuel for diesel tractors. Only crankcase oil from diesel engines can be recycled and burned as fuel in diesel engines, and used oil can't exceed 5% of the final blend. (Ifyou have an oil burning furnace or stove, the Racor unit can be used to filter and blend crankcase oil from a non-diesel engine with furnace oil.) Some trucking companies are recycling filtered crankcase oil back into the fuel tank of the diesel truck from which it was drained. This can be done with Racor's mobile Filter Buggy. It's designed to drain and filter crankcase oil directly from the engine, blend it with diesel fuel from the vehicle's tank, and return the oil-diesel mixture to the fuel tank. The Filter Buggy can also take used oil from a storage drum and mix it with diesel fuel from either a storage or vehicle supply tank. Because it's portable, the unit could be used by several neighboring farmers who store their used oil and periodically filter and blend it with diesel fuel. Although burning a mixture of used filtered engine oil with diesel fuel will not directly affect most engine warranties, the following statement in a service bulletin from one company describes the general position of most manufacturers and engineers with whom FARM SHOW visited: "Although no detrimental effects on the engine or components have been noticed, (the engine manufacturer) does not accept any responsibility for failures or adverse effects, resulting from burning used lube oil in the fuel. The logic is that (the engine manufacturer) has no control over the volume of used lube oil added, nor do we have control of the filtration method used." Racor's Filter Buggy can process about three gallons of used crankcase oil per minute. The stationary 8000-OF6 Model has about twice as much capacity. Both units have cleanable filters which can be washed three or four times in diesel fuel before being replaced. Retail price of the Filter Buggy is $1,934, and $3,960 for the larger stationary unit. With diesel fuel costing more than $1 per gallon, you can estimate how many oil changes would be required to save enough fuel to pay for the recycler/blender. For more information, contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Racor Industries, Inc., P.O. Box 3208, Modesto, CA 95353 (ph 209 521-7860).

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.