Keith writes:
>
>If you get any positive results with HCl, please let us know.
>
Well, I've never gotten HCl to catalyze a TRANSesterification,
but I've gotten it to catalyze the partial ESTERification of free
fatty acids in a sample of dirty oil. One way to refine WVO would
be to esterify the FFA's rather than turning them into soap, prior
to the base- catalyzed reaction for biodiesel. An advantage of using
acid in this way rather than Aleks Kacs-style transesterification
is that it works with wet acid ("muriatic", or 31% HCl/water
solution) and wet alcohol (I used 97% ethanol, but 95% would also
work). So far the yield of refined oil is terrible, but it's nicely
refined -- I got some 2.7 titer oil down to 1.0 in one step, which
is a lot better than I can do in one step of caustic refining.
More expts. are in order.....-K
Biofuel at Journey to Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html
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