WVO that doesn't smell like WVO

[dgs]

I have just bought a quantity of very old WVO. Estimated to be 3 to 6 years old. It doesn't smell of the typical WVO smell, it has a turps/paint smell to it.

With the oil is some partailly converted bio, it also smells the same. I have never used oil this old before.

Has anyone any thoughts.

[oakwoodtv]

Have two 205 ltr drums of oil three + years old opened them last week to move
to the new bio shed and it looks and smells the same as recently collected oil.

They are in clip top drums and the top jug sample looked a lot better than
the oil I originally put in.   

[Julian]

I've got a couple of 200 ltr drums of "reserve" oil that's been sitting for 3-4 years.  I'll open one tomorrow and have a sniff.

[nigelb]

I've got 400lts of reserve oil. Is this something we all do?

Do we all have an emergency supply of oil that if we dip into it probably means that this is the last WVO in the world...there is no more!

[Julian]

I recon we're all a bit neurotic about having to use dino.

It feels really strange going to the garage to buy pet, petr, pe, pet ... that alternative fuel to diesel, for the lawn mower.

In nearly 11 years I've only spent £35 on dino when I absolutely had to, to get home.

[oakwoodtv]

The 400 lts is not a reserve its only that I am to idle to use my oil in rotation
have over 2000 lts in stock and more being collected than I use.

But I can not let a regular collection down you never know when
feast will turn in to famine.   

[dgs]

Three IBC's all approx 600 litres smell the same. As does the IBC with 600 litres of bio that shows 0.6mls dropout (the darkest bio I have ever seen)

A 20 litre cubie of 0.25 dropout is the same. I haven't even started to look at the 2000 litres in drums!

As most of the oil is in IBC's it is 'semi' open to atmosphere.

[Jamesrl]

I've smelled  that turpentine like smell in old bio but never wvo, I've only got about 800ltr stored for a rainy day.

I'm only using about 10ltr a week at the moment but collecting between 120 and 150ltr a month.

[GedsJeep]

when i worked commercially i had the same. very old oil and a rancid, chemically smell. this was from oil covered, but not sealed.

run the tank down to near empty and chuck 20L in. if anything goes wrong, you can dilute the whole tank.

i`ve just gone through a little bit of a famine. couple of months worth. a new exec chef in a chain of three that i used to do brought agri in with him. i laughed and gave the owner my card, told him i knew the exec chef and knew agri.

he called me last week and after the refurb and relaunch wants me to start collecting again. seems the exec chef made a load of bad decisions.......like bringing agri in....

[Head Womble]

I've also been collecting more than I use the last few months, so much so Chug came over at the weekend and 1/2 filled his van, and I'm still sitting on 400L or so.

On a side note I've got just 1/4 of a tank of bio left, from next week I'll be running veg.

[dgs]

Update;

I have now emptied the 4x IBC's which were only 2 to 400 litres full. Most of it was red diesel over water. I can use the diesel for the c/h but one significant observation was that at the bottom of some was that thick black slime, the tell tale prescence of the diesel bug.

There are 3x IBC's of oil, approx 700 litres in each. 10/90's show 10 mls dropout but they all have that paint/turps smell.

Strangest of all is the IBC with what I was told was partially converted bio. A 10/90 shows only 0.6mls but the bio is really dark and has a strong smell I have never experianced before. i don't think I will bother doing anything with this and just use it as thermobile fuel this next winter.

My Jabsco pump needs a new rubber impeller which should arrive today, so more emptying and investigation to do when it comes.

[Julian]

Sorry Dave,  I forgot to check my stored oil, but it sounds like you have it all sussed now.

[Keef]

A few years back I aquired an IBC of what was supposed to be bio but it was very dark and had a really strong smell of creosote.

It had been sold to a school as a bio heating fuel by a commercial producer but it smelled so bad that they paid to have it pumped back out of their tanks and taken away.

In the end I gave it to JulianF who had it shipped down to Cornwall and he used it in his boiler.

I don't know if he did any tests on it but he was going to.

[dgs]

Julian, no worries.

Keef, thanks for that, there seem to be similarities here. My stuff is in a black IBC (suits the colour of whats inside) so I don't know if the 500 litres or so is stood on any water.

Apparantly this was bought from Spen. I know Spen used to buy their bio from Prime Power, just up the road from us and they used glycerol as the feedstock. This probably accounts for the colour but not the smell.

I won't try and do anything with this except use it in the thermobile heater this next winter.
 I am slowly plodding my way through all this, there is a very high % of red diesel amongst it, seems very strange for biodiesel feedstock!