IIRC, aluminum soaps will thicken fuels, and that was a early way to make napalm.
I'm not saying that alum would do this, but, it should be something to keep in mind, as, soap is a byproduct of biofuel production. You would not want a tank full of a flammable sticky gel that does not flow. Greg H. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug Turner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <Biofuel@sustainablelists.org> Sent: Monday, November 14, 2005 8:06 Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Alum as coagulant > Hi Wes: > > Thanks for the information. I was wondering if you have determined if > adding alum has any impact on processing the WVO into BD. My weak, old, and > somewhat suspect knowledge of chemistry tells me that alum will dramatically > alter the pH of unbuffered solutions and that some metals (not sure about > aluminium) will hasten oxidization rates in vegetable oils, shortening their > shelf-life. I don't know enough to figure out for myself if there would be > an impact on processing. Any ideas? > > TIA > > Doug Turner > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Wes Moore" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <Biofuel@sustainablelists.org> > Sent: Monday, November 14, 2005 7:38 AM > Subject: [Biofuel] Alum as coagulant > > > > > > > > After a few months of experimenting with Alum (1 liter test batches) I > have > > concluded that Alum is effective to congeal water and most of the black > > sludge in used cooking oil. > > By adding about 1 teaspoon of alum to a liter of dirty oil, stirring and > > leaving to settle for a day or two, there is an obvious clarity to the oil > > and a layer of sediment at the bottom of the container. > > To make this process even more attractive, by adding more oil after > pouring > > the clarified oil off the top, the alum seems to be able to clarify the > next > > couple of batches without adding more alum. > > Adding powdered bentonite seems to help, although I have not tried to > > separate the effects of each. I would be interested to hear the > experiences > > of others. > > Wes > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Biofuel mailing list > > Biofuel@sustainablelists.org > > http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org > > > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > > > Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 > messages): > > http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ > > > _______________________________________________ > Biofuel mailing list > Biofuel@sustainablelists.org > http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): > http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/ > > _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
