Hello Tom. Yes, it is likely that the high FFA content of the oil caused you problems with the methanol test. But, the water content is also important. You should get yourself a water test kit. One way of pre-treatment is to do a two-step process. After the first alkaline step, take off the glycerol and process the oil/ester with methanol and sulphuric acid as catalyst. This will give you a very high ester content. The amount of acid added has to be calculated upon the original FFA value, of course. With best regards Jan Warnqvist AGERATEC AB
+ 46 554 201 89 +46 70 499 38 45 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Kelly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <biofuel@sustainablelists.org> Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2006 7:35 PM Subject: Re: [Biofuel] tirating a virgin oil > Jan, > You wrote: > "The limit of FFA for a flawless trans-esterification is drawn at 5mg > KOH/g of oil. Any value above will demand pre-treatment of the oil." > > I have been blending the WVO I collect -----> titration of 2 - 3 g of > 90%KOH/L. I recently ran a 76L batch of poor quality WVO . It titrated at > 5.5g of 90%KOH/L. For the first time in months, the BD I produced failed the > methanol quality test .... not bad, but there were tiny buggers that did > not dissolve. > I have been troubled by the failed test. I have never used WVO that > titrated above 4g 90% KOH/L. > 1. Is it reasonable assume that the failure to make quality BD was due to > the poor quality of the WVO I used? > 2. What pre-treatment would be appropriate? > > Tom > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Jan Warnqvist" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <biofuel@sustainablelists.org> > Sent: Monday, August 21, 2006 10:39 AM > Subject: Re: [Biofuel] tirating a virgin oil > > > > Hello Emre, Rafal et al. > > I have to say that I partially disagree with some of your statements. The > > limit of FFA for a flawless trans-esterification is drawn at 5mg KOH/g of > > oil. Any value above will demand pre-treatment of the oil. It is always > > important to check the water content, which should be below 0,5%. Try to > > get > > hold of a water-in-oil test kit for quick determination. > > If we are talking about the EN standard, it is always necessary to process > > the oil/catalyst/methanol mix for 90 minutes to obtain the right values > > for > > tri- di- and monoglycerides. And - this assumes that you have correct > > stochiometric conditions and no methanol losses during processing. > > As for the phophatides and the chlorophyll compounds, my experience is > > that > > these are not very important for the processing result, unless the values > > of > > these are extremely high (thousands of ppms). If so, the oil is usually > > very > > dark. Totally refined oil, on the other hand, may have preservatives > > added, > > and some of these will eat catalyst. So, good oil quality is a tricky > > thing. > > Best of luck to you ! > > Jan Warnqvist > > AGERATEC AB > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Biofuel mailing list > Biofuel@sustainablelists.org > http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): > http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ > > > _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
