Crude Veggie Oil Filtration

If you can only procure contaminated Waste Vegetable Oil, it may be necessary for you to purchase or create a filtration system similar to those used by a takeaway.  I suggest you contact a filtration company from your local yellow pages, and discuss your needs.  They may put you onto a takeaway already using one of their systems.

Some of my customers have developed their own filtration systems using found objects.  There are two examples that follow.

Paper Towel Filter
The waste oil is run through what resembles a large tea strainer, to get out the big bits. It is then heated in a kettle and then poured through a paper towel as a filter into a large coffee urn, then into the settling tank.

About 20 litres of cottonseed oil can be filtered through one paper, and although the paper towel is still useable for more, it is usually discarded after each 20 litres. The oil, when heated, goes through the paper towel filter almost as fast as he can heat up the next little batch.

Jeans Filter
The coarsely filtered waste oil is placed in the clear plastic carboy, which slowly pours out of the hose attached to the tap at the base.

The large blue fruit drum has a denim filter strapped to the top using the existing lid clamp.  The waste oil filters through the denim into the drum. This filtered oil is then pumped into settling drums for later use.  This same system could be applied using smaller drums and 5 micron filter media.

Before pumping the fuel into the cars fuel tank, it is pumped through a water separator fuel filter assembly  to ensure that the fuel will be of a high enough quality to not block the filters in the car.

Professional Filter systems.
The filtration systems that are found in takeaways have a price tag of around $2500.  These units are of  a food grade Stainless steel construction, with a high flow rate pump that has been selected for its long term ability to pump hot vegetable oil.  The oil is typically at 150°c when dropped from the fryer into the pump reservoir.  This is then cycled through a 5 micron filter media for several minutes before moving onto the next fryer.

Vegiecars Filter
Vegiecars are now offering a locally manufactured filter housing for continuous filtration for around $700, which is a fraction of the price of similar commercial food grade housings.  This unit has been developed to gravity filter Waste Vegetable Oils, negating the need for expensive pumping systems, and utilising high quality yet inexpensive filter media. We can also provide you with a motor and pump to suit.

Filter Media.
Proper filter media isn’t terribly expensive.  You will find a huge variety of filter bags and materials available either from your local filtration experts, or available from Vegiecars.
Filter Bags - Vegiecars from $20