dry out oil

Try a small ,say cup full first. It should work. then you will need to heat the larger amout in such a way as to not catch it on fire.

Watch out. The oil floats, and when the water reaches boiling temperature, it pops up kind of explosively and hot oil sprays around. It's really dangerous.

Yes, I have done it.

If you have the time let it settle and then pour off the top. Another way would be pulling a vacuum on it and let the oil boil off at room temp. under a vacuum.

John

Didja mean "let the water boil off" ?

Jeff

No, it will not. And no, you have not done what Karl wants to do.

i

If the oil is milky it has additives to keep water suspended and yes the water will come out with gentle heating...been there! If you have beads of water and the oil isn't milky it will separate by standing over time.

Certainly it will drive off the water. However, overheating may be detrimental to the oil and/or any additives. I think if I were doing it I'd try to discover what the recommended maximum operating temperature is for the oil and then hold the heat to that figure.

Cheers,

John D. Slocomb (jdslocombatgmail)

Ah, a challenge. Ok, the single-burner Coleman is going now, under a

3-lb. steel coffee can with 1/4" of water and a half-quart of cheap motor oil...it's sounding like popcorn. POP! There it goes. 'Just sprayed oil all over the plywood scrap I use for mixing small batches of concrete.

It better not be ruined, or I'll be annoyed -- at both of us. d8-)

Try it, Iggy. Now, if you're going to say that Karl can control the temp to

200 F, my response is, good luck. But stand back.

Got a vacuum pump? I doubt you have the volume to justify the sort of thing (as commercially and not cheaply built in Cortland, NY) we used on the transformer oil in the labs, but that was a vacuum-filtration system, and as such would get the water out without heat (it also ran it through filters to remove particulates at the same time - I'd suggest at least a pipe section with a bunch of super-magnets to pull any steel out of it, and perhaps a regular spin-on filter as well if you can plumb one up.)

I think he is saying the water is emulsified in the oil and won't separate. But I wouldn't bet on it not separating when heated.

-jim

Do you want to risk an expensive transmission, hydraulic pump and control valves to salvage $50 worth of tractor UTF fluid?

its a bit of both. I'll toss the bottom gallon after it sits. Then heat the milky stuff. I'll just start with 1/2 a five pail and set the hot plate on about mid range heat. Check it every 30 minutes or so. I got 20 gallons for this batch.

Thanks, everybody, for all the advice.

Karl

Are you saying that you pulled a vacuum to boil off the water, or that you used a vacuum pump to suck the oil through a filter? Two pretty different processes.

A centrifuge is effective at this, if you are on a farm, a cream separator is a form of a centrifuge that may be worth a try, particularly if you have one that you don't use for cream any more.

Aside from what others have suggested, a dessicant like silica gel or calcium chloride will absorb water from oil. You will need more of the dessicant than the water you want to remove. I have not tried this myself.

If that's the case, I didn't see where Karl said that the oil was fully emulsified.

That's called "form oil" when it lands on your concrete-mixing plywood scrap, Ed - should be fine.

but I kept it so clean.

I was kidding Iggy. I wouldn't have put something that couldn't take the oil under my stove. But I do try to keep it off of my mixing tools.

Now I have to get rid of the mess of oil and water...

What I am saying is that at 200-220 degrees, the water (in droplets) does not have the energy to explode. I would just heat the oil in a boiling water bath.

i