Vegetable Oil SVO WVO waste cooking oil as biofuel

[Radrick]

Well I sent the drawings of my wvo tank to my buddy that works at a steel fab company. Now the question is do I have him cut it out of mild steel, hot rolled steel or stainless steel. The tank calculates out to be 105 gallons and will be shaped to utilize the front half of my box and be 12" tall. This will allow me to have a bunk above the tank and still have storage at the rear under the bunk. I use between 25 and 35 gallons a week on avarage. This means that I will have fuel in the tank for three to four weeks. I am building the system with two coolant loops so that I can regulate the flow on the loop that heats the wvo upstream of the fuel pump and in the tank. I will be installing a heated pickup loop in the tank. I don't plan on having any coolant flowing in the tank in the summer and I will regulate the heat in the tank in the winter so that it only heats the oil enough too get it to the lift pump.
With the recent price increases in steel there is a large differance between steel and stainless steel. I am concidering using steel and lining the tank with a fuel tank linner from eastwood. I have used this product many time in old car tanks and it really works well. It is good for gas and diesel. I know that alot of people are using a stock tank in trucks that came with dual tanks or using the stock tank and just adding a small diesel tank. Are these people having problems with using steel tanks? I need some feedback on this so I can let him know what I need. Thanks.

[WD8CDH]

I have not had any problems using very well dewatered fuel in either stock Audi or Mercedes tanks but I don't know what their lining is made of. The linings were black and no sign of flaking after several years of cooking oil contact.

[Performance Plus WVO]

I made one out of cold rolled steel and now its in the scrap pile because of poly. It lasted 2 years and It may have been ruined by condensation. I have switched to an aluminum one and I am much happier. Do yourself a favor if you add heat to your oil make it stainless. If you want to do it once make it stainless with a marine deck hatch to clean the inside when needed. You may want to incorporate in your design is a water trap on the bottom of the tank which could be as simple as a sump with a ball valve to drain condesated water. Stainless and your done. Steel and you will have to do it over. But steel is less expensive for the first time around.