On 2019-10-30, Leighton1210 wrote:

I need a way to vacuum hot oil without collapsing a vessel. We have
been using 55 gallon drums for oil that has cooled down, but, they will
collapse when enough hot oil is vacuumed into them.

Are these plastic drums or steel? I think that the vacuum is
about the same value for hot or cold oil, but the hot oil softens
plastic drums, making it easier for the vacuum to collapse them.

My thought was to
use a 20 gallon, 200 psi, 650 degree F rated air tank.

How big a tank? Remember, tanks made for pressure are not
necessarily structurally designed for vacuum -- high or even mild. I
presume that the level of vacuum is what you get out of a Shop Vac type
device. The limit there is what the pump can produce before it starts
spinning faster because the air in the device is too thin to resist the
motor's force.

This would not
be a true vacuum. There will be constant air flow. The hot oil that we
need to vacuum is only about 1 to 1 1/2 inches deep, so, a standard hot
oil pump will not work.

Again -- is it a plastic drum? I'll bet a steel one would
collapse at the same vacuum whether hot or cold -- and a higher vacuum
than what collapses the plastic drum when hot.

Good Luck,
DoN.

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