Hi Steve and welcome, I don't believe that you would need to degum first, but you may need to dry the black oil by heating. Don't be heavy handed on the caustic and you should be OK. A local natural soap maker would value your "impure" glycerol, caustic and all- try to get enough for it to at least offset the cost of your meth and IPA, actually you may not need the IPA. Hanns has found a local agent for an Indian supplier of oil seed presses- we met him on Tuesday (Brisbane). Their gear is well made and well priced. I'm hoping that they can supply a glcerol still. A component of one of their systems makes a perfect commercial batch reactor for biodiesel at a reasonable price. It is very similar to the design Tony and I came up with for our hobbyist kit. You will need to build a reflux still to reclaim the methanol if you are going to get serious, the design on Kieth's websight is as good as you will get and is easy to build.
For a 150l plant I suggest a solar hot water system tank as a starting point-get your local scrap merchants to look for one. They are made of bright steel and have an axial heating element-you mount it vertically. The standard thermostate only goes to ~80C. Its handy to have a thermostatic control on your vessel, I bought an electronic thermostate for ~$200, If you don't need to get over 100C they are cheaper but I like to be able to dry at ~115--120C. I have a number of conductivity controlers here that I may be able to modify with the right thermistor when I get some time to fiddle-I will let you know. My email is attached if you want to ask anything and there appears to be a Sydney support group starting up, though most questions can be asked on this group. I don't have time to follow all threads. Regards from Harry. --- In [EMAIL PROTECTED], Steven Hobbs <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > G'day all. Well I guess I must be the next new kid on the block. I'm a > farmer from country Victoria in Australia. I have managed to get my > hands on some cold pressed oil from a crop research institute and have > been busy making bio-diesel. I have a question to throw open (only one > you ask?!!) Do I need to degum the oil prior to reacting with the > alcohol & catylist? My impression is that glucosinolates, emzymes, > lecithins and all the thick gooey things that are no good for diesels > come out with the glycerine (hence the low quality ot the glycerine) and > that if the bio-diesel is washed the washing will remove any excess lye, > methanol and free fattys. Is this correct? > Why I'm asking is that where I live we use a considerable amount of > diesel and I honestly think that us big users could be enticed (without > a great deal od effort) to replace a percentage of our crude derived > distillate with bio-diesel. > If the above assumption is correct ( would love to hear from anyone > making bio-diesel from cold pressed oil ) I would be interested in > setting up my own press, growing and producing bio-diesel and using the > meal to fatten livestock. All suggestions, ideas, revelations, critisims > (however you spell it!!) are welcome. > Regards > Steven > > > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. > To unsubscribe, send an email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Small business owners... Tell us what you think! http://us.click.yahoo.com/vO1FAB/txzCAA/ySSFAA/9bTolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuels at Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel at WebConX http://www.webconx.com/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm 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/
