Preheater test run

I completed a test run with a preheater designed to raise the temperature of the oil feedstock.
About 180Liters of diesel was made during the day though numerous problems prevented a better result. The feedstock feedpump failed to deliver, the preheater boiled over, the retort over filled were amongst problems encountered.
It's becoming clear that the feedpump should have been mounted lower with respect to the preheater.
At times the pump could not pick up the oil. High oil temperature would have thinned the viscosity and in addition the pump rpm was too slow to make the system reliable.


Also a reliable method of accurately determining retort level urgently needs to be found. This problem has been particularly troublesome and frustrating. The liters per hour could increase by a good margin if this was sorted. In addition, heating energy could be saved.


The bigger gasjar functioned as expected. It is over double capacity.


I have about 180 liters of diesel which is being progressively fed into the up-flow settling tanks.
Therefore I have 3 ~ 4 weeks of fuel. By then I want to be ready with the next round of modifications.


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