Diffuser
A diffuser is a simple device used to improve efficiency when air drying used cooking oil or biodiesel.
Contents
Basic drying method
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
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
The inverted Uri diffuser
Since the Uri Geller diffuser was made, huntman40 has come up with a rather simple and effective modification, the inverted Uri. It's construction should will be obvious from the graphic. It would appear that this arrangement while producing an improved spray pattern, also reduces splashing.
Bio-rich-time-poor 01:56, 18 January 2011 (UTC)
