Blog

Spillage...

You haven’t been running WVO long if you haven’t had an oil spill.  Whether collecting behind Happy Garden or pumping in your garage, odds are you’ll have a slip an error of greasy proportions.  “Holy Shit, shut off the pump”, “my God NO, this can't be happening”,  Sure, we can take precautions like having spill containment devices, carrying around an armful of towels etc.  But, nothing is going to prevent the un-preventable.  It happens to all of us, whether a sloppy Joe or an anal retentive Al, and it has happened to me.

One of my most shocking spills was back 2yrs ago.  I had my filtering station in a 10x20ft red metal shipping container, the kind that ride atop those monster

Ben, Chad and Derek with the Lost Bus Project come to visit WVO Designs at the beginning of their year journey to share their passion for the environment and outdoor activities.

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WVO Designs visits Jeremy Nutma in Airdrie, Alberta. Jeremy shows us his WVO filling station, Centrifuge and collection equipment.

If you are having trouble viewing try on Vimeo or YouTube

We will only continue doing these if you want them: so leave a comment and tell us!

I need to pry myself away from the bench to write a bit about the latest product that we have released. The Monster Gear Pump V2!

A little background on the Monster Gear Pump: When I got started with veggie oil I purchased a Redline Pump, at the time they were still using a belt and required grease on the pulley every couple hours to keep it from seizing. On top of that, I was only getting about 5gpm through 30feet of .75" hose so a full 275Gallon tote took an hour to transfer. Don't get me wrong, I liked the little pump and Redline has gone away from the belt solving the lubrication/seizing issue. My issue was that the pump head (actually

Each minute approximately 150 to 400 gallons of crude oil continue to spill into and threaten estuaries and marine life in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the Environmental News Network. The news continues to be so bleak that I am hesitant to even type any words containing, spill, oil or worse, catastrophe. Which in addition to unsuspecting marine life, seems to be the only prediction of where this accident will head next.

But not all the news is entirely dim. The disaster has brought together concerned consumers, lawmakers, public and marine conservation groups that are working to bring awareness to the general public and make necessary legal changes to protect Joe Plumber from getting stuck with the bill. And speaking of bill, The Big Oil Bailout Prevention Act of 2010

There are many WVO conversion systems on the road that need an operation manual to run them.  Wait until this gauge is...then turn this...10minutes before you stop...Make sure....ect.  When I set out to develop the system for my truck, I coined the phrase "wife proof operation".  Now don't get me wrong, my wife is a very intelligent woman; medical degree and everything.  However, in order for her to drive my truck (and use WVO) on occasion, the system really has to do it all. 

Fast forward about two years: My wife and I are driving home from a weekend in Florida (1000 WVO trip) and I made the comment.  "I am really impressed how reliable the WVO system is on this truck!".  I almost heard the bell toll.

A week or so later, we were in the process of getting my wif

I shut myself in my design cave for the past few weeks and now am ready to leak you what I have been working on:  The RPC 210 - Thats 210oz collection capacity in the bowl.  By spec its about 10x the size and performance of the standard RPC 22 (22oz) so you can expect un-heated WVO flowrates at 50-100gph. 

But wait there is more: also in the design is a self purge option that will evacuate the bowl of the collected materials.  Obviously, this is machine is not for everyone, but if you are looking for automated 24/7 operation or need to clean serious amounts of oil; this is the answer. 

Finally, the best part:  I am looking at a base price of $5000 for a machine that will compete with centrifuges costing  4 times as much. 
If you are interested in getting one of these brutes, I will be taking orders for pre-production during the month of March.  I will do a batch of up to 10 units at $4000 each.  Reserve your machine with a $2000 deposit

I have been wearing my pointy little geek hat quite a bit this month.  Re-worked the structure of the website and installed a new cart system that is integrated with my warehouse.   Bla Bla Bla What all that means is that you will have stock visibility, same day shipping and a calculated shipping cost (rather than a high flat rate).  I know there will be bugs but it is the foundation to support me providing you with the whole gambit of veggie related equipment.  We have active projects running to find cost effective components now and they will be showing up on the site as they are available.

The second part of this re-work is to organize the education Wiki portion of the website.  I have complete designs for conversions and equipment available but the organization has always been a problem.  Even with this challenge, hundreds of people have downloaded these designs and I know of a good many that have used them verbatim or as a starting point for their conversions.   While I

2009 Was a crazy year to start a business!  Nuf said.  I would have to write a book to go over all the changes at WVO designs this year but it has all been in the right direction and our mission and role in the community is clear.

WVO Designs will continue to develop and distribute products and designs to the waste oil and biofuel industry.  Expect to see an acceleration of products and design offerings through 2010.  Last year we worked out the system, now we are going to focus on filling it. 

We will maintain a focus on the community.  The best part of my day is talking to people that share my passion for biofuels and alternative energy.  Expect to see an organization and expansion of the free WVO conversion designs, there are only a handful of WVO suitable vehicles in the US and I am going to try to get a design documented for each of them.  They will all be released to the community "open source" and I encourage commun