Modified wood stove to burn used oil:

[CalG]

You're right, it does suck more air than wood....now I am thinking about a small blower & drip the oil into a cast iron pot with something small in the center of the pot to make the drop splatter. I think I can make it better if I give it more O2.

That will work! It will pulse with each drop as it hits the fry pan, but there will be lots of heat. I've seen one set up just that way. About a drop every two seconds is what I saw. Whoo.... Whooo

The blower fan was in the door, with a small drilling in the stove top above , just in about 8-10 inches (this was a long narrow stove, not wide and shallow like yours) with a fitting to connect the gravity oil feed pipe. The fan ran constantly (must have really burned the wood!)

A cast iron fry pan from the harware or second hand store is just the ticket. set it up on wiers or weld in some cross bars so you can get wood or coal under it. Once it get's hot, it takes care of it's self. No wood needed. Don't worry about the splash, the pan get so hot, that the oil vaporization sends the liquid oil out in a real scatter.

I'm not sure how to keep the drip feed inside the stove from coking up. It would seem that the oil feed should be shrouded with fresh air to reduce temperatures. That would be a good design exercise.

 

[jaotguy]

skip the copper line inside the stove .. it oxidizes quickly and shortens ( use stainless lines and it also doesn't coke up )...

as the oil in the bucket gets warmer, it flows quicker ( more drops ) and more drops= more heat and more heat = more drops
you have to throttle back once things get warm or you will eventually have thermal run away.

the whoosh whoosh sound is the oil burning up all the oxygen, the flame going out , new air coming in and re-igniting so you have too much oil.

no need for a fan, put a side vent down low and put a air tight damper on it, angle it to follow the wall of the stove ( to create a swirling motion in the air ) look at what they do for kilns.

you don't have to drip the oil, it can simply flow into the "frying pan" and be started with a piece of tissue paper ( its just a wick till things get hot and starts burning by itself )

 

[moeh1]

I remember the original Mother Earth one, they had 2 fry pans stacked one upside down on the other with some crushed firebrick pieces in the lower one. They used paper and kero or alcohol? to start it going. I had a friend doing about the same thing 15 years before they published that. Lots of heat in waste oil.

 

[MotorSeven]

Keep 'em coming...lot's of good ideas, and yes I agree, "lot's of heat in waste oil":thumbsup:

 

[Industrial Toys]

Just a thought. Does oil produce more BTUs if it is vaporized as in a standard oil furnace or is it all the same thing in the end?

I would love to do something like this for my shop. But the oil would make the wood burn in no time. Part of the hassle of burning wood in my shop is the constant necessity to keep the firebox full of wood.

 

[MotorSeven]

I think you get more heat and less waste up the flue when vaporized and sufficient air.

No, the opposite, a split of wood lasts longer with oil dripping on it because it's mostly oil burning off...not wood. I'm going to build a traditional wood fire(maybe tomorrow) and record the time back down to 200 degrees(that's my bottom line for usable heat). Then build another fire and once going start the drip and see how long I stay above 200.

 

[jaotguy]

Just a thought. Does oil produce more BTUs if it is vaporized as in a standard oil furnace or is it all the same thing in the end?

the better the combustion the more heat you extract from the oil .... ( pressurized oil burner )
so a blue flame = almost complete use of the fuel
yellow = incomplete combustion and some soot ( depends on how much air gets mixed in )

 

[The Fred]

Definately not legal to burn waste oil in a woodstove, check your state laws.
Not that it matters. Whatever you do DON'T tell a fireman or your homeowners insurance. Can you imagine the look on your insurance guy's face when he sees that contraption?

If you're gonna do it right get an old Becket burner and modify it to work through the side of your stove, would be much safer. Properly burned waste oil burns yellow not blue, needs lots of air and pressurized, pre-heated oil.

Fred, waste oil is no different than gasoline once it gets to rolling, LOTS of energy.

 

[Daves3032E]

I had thought about doing something like this in my garage. Only I thought that the use of it would be after a nice bed of coals was built up, then open up the air intake a bit, and let the oil drip on the hot coals for ignition. That would help get some more heat out of the coals and to let them burn down before more wood is added. I don't have any experience with this waste oil burning, but that's how I was perceiving it working.

 

[Looking4new]

Thirty years ago I did the same thing using diesel fuel to heat a fish shack. 8x8' shack the temps inside would be hot enough that you could strip most of your winter wear off and fish in a T-shirt all day.