The addition of glycerine to the BD being washed has caused some problems. Excatly how mush gly is getting it there is hard to tell, but it is making things difficult. The wash by oscillating sprinkler system works very well, but it is a little violent and that doesn't seem to sit well with the glyc and it turns out a layer of very thick soup that won't break, so I have to empty the wash tank, BD first via the standpipe, and then clean out the wash tank completely before re-introducing the BD. Once that is done there are no more probs, except that a portion of the yield has been diminished. Of course, when dealing with colder temps and unheated surroundings, like where I have my set up, it might be a good idea to simply re-heat the lot using the reactor's heater and then firing up the pump, mixing everything back together to be sure no hardened glycerine has stayed on the bottom and then letting it settle back out for a few hours and drain it once and then again a bit later, although that might just start the porblem all over again. The best solution is a seperate settling tank or using KOH instead of the NaOH, or better still, house the reactor is a heated space when available. During the winter months I am planning on insulating the building my reactor is in as well as getting that secondary settling tank set up properly. I learned from the creation of the pre-heat tank about things to avoid, like 1/2 inch plumbing, and placing the heater too high in the tank, so that this time those errors won't be repeated. The heater element goes about 2 inches (5cm) off the bottom of the tank, that way it won't be exposed should a small amount of product be needed to be warmed up. 3/4 inch plumbing everywhere except the methoxide delivery system where 1/2 inch is plenty. For having my reactor finished only in the second week of August and already having produced hundreds of liters I believe to be a fairly good start. The Benz has gone on vacations with B100 in the tank on the way up and a good portion of the way back. It is still now running on B100, and today all those warnings about the filters clogging from all the dirty fuel deposits came true. Just before leaving on holidays I had the car's valves adjusted, all filters, oil and fuel changed for brand new MB parts and only today does it crap out on me,ha! Tomorow is replace the fuel filters day. It is funny because the fuel filter hasn't so much as a tiny scratch on it and it is useless. BD cleans ! It is with great remorse that I will have to shut down production for the winter, but then it will give me time to get it together for next year. I am finding that my one good WVO supplier isn't able to keep up with me so that will be on the list of things to do too. The organic farmer today asked if he should buy a "biodiesel truck", so we all know where THAT is going huh ? I make the fuel, he uses it to help run his organic farm that produces food the way it is supposed to be done. Win, win.
Luc _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/biofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable): http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/
