Diffuser

Oil drying diffuser. Source: KH

A diffuser is a simple device used to improve efficiency when air drying used cooking oil or biodiesel.

Basic drying method

EmbedVideo received the bad id "Bv8ivoE7lXQ?fs=1&hl=en_GB" for the service "youtube".

Diffuser for 2" pipework. Source: K.H

Early drying methods for oil and biodiesel typically comprised of a tank, a circulating pump with associated pipe work and a sparge pipe which squirted streams of liquid through the air within the open top of the tank. The aim of this process was to gain as much contact between the air and the hot Biodiesel or oil as possible, so that any suspended water could evaporate.

Conical diffuser

Ideal profile for a diffuser

Conical diffuser. Source jamesrl.

Logically, increasing the surface area of the liquid whilst in the air will result in improved efficiency, so some home brewers use diffusers to achieve this. The ideal shape is a cone with concave sides but this is difficult to manufacture without suitable tools. Straight sided cones are easer to manufacture, work almost as well and are far more efficient than the sparge pipe arrangement.

The Uri Geller diffuser

A particularly inventive idea comes from Uberveg, Construction time must have been all of 90 seconds and needs no description!

• Ingenious use of soup spoons and ladles as diffusers.
• 

  A vertical Uri. Source: Uberveg

• 

  A horizontal Uri. Source: Uberveg

• 

  An appropriately adjusted ladle. Source: Rossey

A very effective inverted Uri. Source: huntman40

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5orLlfnbxZs

Bio-rich-time-poor 01:56, 18 January 2011 (UTC)