Hi bioveging, Todd spoke words of wisdom to me and helped me save about four days, so I went back and found the post. I had spent time and $$$ on the bubble wash method, but thought it to take too long for my liking.
Since then, I drain my separation (after reaction ) to a secondary 55 gal white poly drum and where it settles for 18-24hrs. My secondary drum has two side bulkhead valves installed about 6"-10" apart from another , with 1/2 ballvalves. I'll simply drain the Glycerin-level just below the top ballvalve, using the lower valve. Then drain the BD the top layer into another secondary wash drum that has the same bulkhead setup. Yeah, I could have used the standpipe design, but decided on see-through poly. After following Todd's rules, I'll add 5-10 gal of water gently (I put the garden hose just below the BD, so not to create emulsion) and mix with the same mixer I used in my reactor tank for 3-5 min., wait 30min - 1 hour for settling and repeat twice, before draining the murky water and starting the process over until satisfied. So my original post had to do with saving time! However, I was introduced to a better way to wash BD without any pumps or bubble stones etc. Hope it helps..No emulsion! **************************************************************************** ******************* Kevin, Yes. You can speed up the process considerably. It involves the following: . 1) Throw out your mist washer. 2) Box up your bubble washer. 3) Make absolutely sure that you never try to wash an incomplete reaction by testing washing a 1 ounce sample in a sealed jar. 4) Use a motor driven impeller to mix the water/fuel mixture to the point of appearing homogenous for ~5 minutes. 5) Let settle 1 hour. 6) Syphon off the top layer of fuel and repeat steps 5, 6 & 7 two more cycles. 7) Let the fuel air dry or heat to 120*F to dry. 8) Combine all your wash waters and the 1"-2" of fuel that was left on top after each syphoning in a collection tank. 9) Let settle 24 hours. 10) Remove lower water layer to a wastewater treatment tank to recover the soaps. 11) Return the accumulated fuel from the wash water residue to your first wash of your next batch. Depending upon the volume of oil in your batch, the hp/size of your reactor tank and wash tank motors/impellers, you could get your entire batch process time down to 24 hours. Most people avoid mechanical mixing of the fuel at the wash stages, thinking that it will create emulsion problems. And they're right if they try to wash "fuel" from incomplete reactions. That's the primary reason why they were "invented" and have achieved such wide acceptance - too many people aren't meticulous about making sure that their reactions are complete. Todd Swearingen ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevin Shea" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2004 10:43 PM Subject: [biofuel] Questions Speed-up washing biodiesel > Hello, > > Is there a way to speed-up the water-biodiesel wash during the "settling of washing the fuel? I've read the bubble washing techniques & understand it, but for the best quality of biodiesel, it can take up-to-a-week, with several washes. One person mentioned a centrifuge, which I never used & know nothing about that equipment. I imagine it to be a very expensive machine, takes up a large amount of space, and may not be available to the average homebrewer. > > Could vibration assist in aiding water to help filter water to "shake" past the biodiesel to the bottom water level in a shorter amount of time? > > Has anyone tried to experiment using vibration? Also, -In order to understand the process better, does anyone have a mpeg simulation illustrating the (Molecular model) cleansing of biodiesel in the wash stage process or something similar? > > I am curious to see the what exactly is happening in the batch? While I'm at it, how about a simulation of the transesterification process in a mpeg? > > Anyone? > > > Thank you, > Kevin Shea > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "bioveging" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2004 4:35 PM Subject: [biofuel] Circulation with pump washing. > OK, I tried the drill pump via the standpipe and returned it via the > water drain and that didn't give satisfactory results. I then tried > to hook up a Pony Pump and do the same thing with essentially the > same unresults, so I then had the brilliant idea of hooking up the > Pony Pump to the water drain and have it splash into the BD from the > top and that gave about the same results as the former two methods, > unsatisfactory. > Now, before I waste more of my time there has to be someone that > does this successfully and that has been having quite a yarn at my > trial and error stuff, so how's about sharing how you do it ???? > My next attempt will be to draw from the water drain and have it > return via a tube to a T section in the center top of the tank and > the cross members will have holes drilled into them so that it will > esentially give me a hard rain, which I am pretty sure will work. > Like mist washing, but on steroids, HA! > Of course another way would be to load a bunch of water into the > reactor after draining the glycerine and having a go at it that way, > but I do not want to have water residue in the works when I get > ready to do another batch, so same tank for all uses doesn't work > for me. > > Any comments? > > L. > > > > > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > Biofuels list archives: > http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/ > > Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. > To unsubscribe, send an email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuel/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
