Can I take waste vegetaqble oil, filter it ,and burn it in my oil burning furnace .?

should I keep it above room temp. Do I need to add anything to it. Can it damage my furnace?Can I take waste vegetaqble oil, filter it ,and burn it in my oil burning furnace .?
On an episode of Mythbusters they burned filtered waste vegetable oil with no problems in a diesel automobile. It was a warm day so the oil wasn't cold. You might try what they did. Bypass the tank and rig up a gallon of the stuff to feed the burner directly. Check for any build up on the burners. You might experiment with a 50/50 or 40/60 mix to find the right solution. I would watch it closely at first to be sure everything is all right.





I've never tried it but the Mythbusters cars burned the stuff just fine with the gravity fed gallon can that they rigged up.Can I take waste vegetaqble oil, filter it ,and burn it in my oil burning furnace .?
Your not the first one that has asked this. No you cannot use it this way. This is not a unique idea, although a good one.





The oil has to be refined, it takes thousands of dollars to build a refinery in your garage but, that's been done too.


The man has been on ';Dirty jobs'; and built his own refinery in his garage. He cleans up for McDonald's and Burger King for their old oil but, it has to be refined.
To be honest, I am not sure. it might be one of those suck it and see things.





An diesel IC engine is a different matter as those things were originally designed to run on vegetable oil. Diesel actually designed them to run on peanut oil.





Oil furnace heaters are designed to run on petroleum oils, so they are designed to preheat the petroleum oil mixture to the correct temperature for igntion.





So, so long as the vegetable oil ignition point is at or just below the petroleum oil, it should work.





Try this experiment outside with a LPG gas ring, water bath, tin of fuel (sardine or small tin?) and high temperature thermometer. Slowly heat up the petroleum fuel oil taking regular readings, until t starts to lightly smoke. Note the temperature and then try lighting it with a long match. If it ignites, then you've found the temperature you want.





You can also experiment further to see if it will ignite at lower temperatures.





Then try the same experiment with the waste vege oil. Compare the results.





You want them close. If the vege oil is higher, then it will not ignite. If it is far lower, then your furnace could be filled with volatile fumes when the ignitor strikes = BOOM.





N.B. Keep old bag, carpet, blanket or similar, plus fire extinguisher and water hose handy when carrying out the tests. If hot oil spills, throw the old carpet/blanket, etc on top to starve air from the flames, and hose down the who kit and caboodle to remove heat. don't forget to tunr off LPG as well.
Your furnace has a burner nozzle [orifice] sized for a certain weight of oil. If you try to burn a heavier, thicker oil, it will clog the nozzle up. Also, fuel oil is petroleum, cooking oil is plant extract. Both burn different, and leave different amounts of soot in the fire chamber and chimney flue, and don't mix together very well.


Even burning number #1 fuel oil will result in fewer furnace cleanings and problems, than burning number #2 [diesel].





Replacing the nozzle in your burner gun would allow you to burn it, but a gallon of fuel oil is still cheaper than a gallon of veggie oil.


They do make waste oil heaters that burn basically anything, but they are very inefficient and really can stink, depending on the oils used. They are mainly for garages/shops.