Pictures! Batch number one was made in an improvised Drill-press/paintmixer/ 5gal bucket setup. Not pretty, it used a water bath from a propane ring and a turkey fryer pot to keep it a steady 135F the whole hour.
<a href=''">http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v514/VasriiHuntress/ConversionSubject/Biodiesel/First_Fuel.jpg'>A sample of the first batch made, after 15 hours of separation</a>
It looked alright to my inexperienced eye, so I decanted it off, settled what was left in some jars for a few hours, poured that into a bigger jar (I'm going to let it settle overnight again, and redecant and so forth.).
<a href=''">http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v514/VasriiHuntress/ConversionSubject/Biodiesel/Lineup.jpg'>Lineup of products</a>
>From left to right: Initial decanted product, remnant "slurry" that I didn't want to try and catch during the initial decanting, and a direct pour of the bottom layer (Hopefully the glycerine layer?).
Right, set all that stuff aside, poured some into a clean, dry mason jar, added about 30% water to it... and tried washing, gently swirled.
<a href=''">http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v514/VasriiHuntress/ConversionSubject/Biodiesel/Wash_test.jpg'>This happened.</a>
The one on the left is the wash attempt with a miniscule amount of vinegar added (As per Pelly instructions), and the one of the right is straight water/"fuel". Yuck. Emulsion city. They'd been sitting there for about forty five minutes when the picture was taken.
So I set all that aside, and set about to make up a second batch. Got permission to scrounge up the blender and convert it to my uses, so I used that instead of my ramshackle setup. Measured my lye more quickly and more accurately (Stepped up my production volume for methoxide, into a level where 3.5g and the 2 gram increments coincided: 14 grams to 800mL of methanol. I put the rest of it aside in another glass jar when I was done.), and mixed it up in the blender. Added my oil, mixed at increasing speeds for an hour; that thing got hot, let me tell you.
I ended up with this: <a href=''">http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v514/VasriiHuntress/ConversionSubject/Biodiesel/Second_Batch.jpg'>Right after stopping the blender</a>
I set a jar of the new beside a jar of the old: <a href=''">http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v514/VasriiHuntress/ConversionSubject/Biodiesel/Comparison.jpg'>Settled overnight (Left) Vs Just mixed (Right)</a>.
So... comments or suggestions?
I'm going to try reprocessing the first batch, after I get some more methanol.
-K
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