I was reading Alek«s 2 stage method today, when it came upon me that maybe, to a certain degree, we could boost efficiency a little with a related method. It«s nothing out of this world, but still.
Has anyone ever watched when stirring a solution with undissolved particles still in it, that because of centrifugal forces and velocity of the fluid, after neatly stirring in circles, the solute will start forming a "galaxy shaped" figure. This goes for any undissolved particles: maybe the thin foam on the surface of a cup of tea, or the undissolved sugar at the bottom... anything. When I say "galaxy shaped" it«s because that is what it looks like (and because the same physics rules surely apply to the formation of them)... i.e.: a sort of open spiral, with a core that spiraling "tentacles" which all seem to point out following a curved path. Sort of as if you held an octupus from above, and slightly rotated his head with his tentacles still on the ground: from up top you«d see the head (core) and the spiraling tentacles. But enough about that (I hope my explanation is not too far fetched). We all know now that the WVO/methoxide reaction is an equilibrium reaction, which can attain a considerable efficiency, but does not reach completion. We have also said that in an equilibrium reaction, removing some of the products of the reaction displaces the reaction twards the products« side, thus forming a higher quantity of them (and this is useful when working with any eq. reaction). Last but not least, we all know how un-homely and $$$ a centrifuge machine can be. When you stirr your Biodiesel, a great portion will appear in a visible form. That is, if you start from 1lt WVO and 200 ml Methoxide, maybe you«ll get, say, 200 ml of untreated glycerin once you pass the settling stage (don«t qote me on that number... I«m using it to quantify my explanation). Probably after the 50 minutes mix you«ll already have at least 100 ml settling quicky at the bottom, and you«ll have to wait for the settling stage to get the other 100 ml out of the BD mixture. Now, if you use a circular container, as a stainless steel bucket (for my small batches, I use a satinless steel ice bucket), and you mix with an electric stirrer (I use a 9V motor with a steel coat hanger molded into something that resembles a rod with a small hoop at the end), and after that you try to form a deep vortex (still never allowing the vortex to reach the tip of the stirrer and forming trillions of unwanted bubbles), then you«ll get the mixture flowing in a circular motion. The glycerin that visibly separates after 50 minutes of stirring will probably be located just below the stirrer, in the center of the bucket, right at the bottom, just as in the cup of tea. If you placed a little tap (a hose epoxi-ed to the bucket and secured closed with a clamp), then, while stirring fast enough to make the fluid move in a circular matter, but slow enough to let this motion flow uniformly, you could take these 100 ml of glycerin out of the bucket, and allow the reaction to continue producing some more BD (and glyc). You could meanwhile separate the glycerin from any trespassing BD, and throw this small portion of BD back in again while you maintain the reaction for a bit longer, maybe 40 minutes more. I«ve still not tried this, but if there was any more settled glyc while stirring in the secnd stage, you could even perform a third stage, removing this newly formed glyc. The spiral galaxy forms because as the physics laws for circular motion tell us, the liquid moving far away from the center of rotation rotates at an angular velocity equal to that of the liquid close to the center, but covers a greater distance in the same time, so actually, it«s moving much faster than the liquid at the center. This is the principle of most separators used in the industry. At lower velocities, the particles settle. A spec of sand will only remain airborne at a certain air velocity, below which it will fall down. In the BG/Glyc system, the glycerin is denser so it sinks to the bottom, and behaves as the spec of sand jest described. In the periphery, far away from the center of the bucket, the mixer makes the fluid move quickly, but in the center (just below the stirrer), velocity drops and so, any decanted glycerin will tend to star gathering up near the center og the bucket and ath the bottom, fomring the "spiral galaxy" shape described (or at least following this pattern... various factor many times make this shape not so obvious). Sorry for the extent of this post. I hope someone tries this and sees how it works. If it really does, it could represent a great time saving (regarding Alek«s two stage method). Anyway, it is more complicated than Alek«s method and might require practice... if it really works. I recall having seen some glycerin just after I stopped stirring. This would be the moment to tap the glyc, and then continue stirring. A conic floor (for the bucket) would probably help (as in a cyclone: apparatus used to settle dust particles from an air stream). Best to you all, and please tell me if anyone is interested in further testing this method. Christian [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Stock for $4 and no minimums. FREE Money 2002. http://us.click.yahoo.com/orkH0C/n97DAA/ySSFAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
