Good points there Todd; I would like to add though that it is really informative to those of us on the list with less experience when we read posts such as these and though information may be somewhat anecdotal or even if somewhat scientific if it is less than rigorous it may still be of use if it is taken as such. If we do have time we should investigate these questions. For instance recently I posted a question similar to this asking the membership for a feeling on how much water content can be lived with in oil at the starting point. I know I had at least one cc of water in my last batch of 25 liters which equals at least 40 ppm water content. The batch still washed very easily and passes the water and methanol tests. I have not reprocessed it but I will have NMR results for it in time. It would be good to know just where the limits are with this. Also how much glycerine will poison the wash. I'm sure some people have a better feel for this than others even if it may not be completely scientific. There have been a few brave souls on here who have talked about their failures but not many since I've been here (about a year now I guess). Human nature I guess but if anyone does have some experience that sheds light on some of these questions please share. Personally I am trying to find out how much I can shorten settling times also. I think time can be saved especially in the early washes by reducing settling times for one example but I only learn a little bit with each batch and there are a lot of things I want to investigate. Does it make sense for us to organize some type of 'controlled' testing amongst a group of us who have a stable reliable process? I can only change one variable at a time but if I can get 10 people to do the same, with different variables or differing amounts of the same variable it will reduce the learning curve considerably. Is anyone else interested or willing to put effort into the idea?
Joe Appal Energy wrote: Snip >ReZn0r, >All this is done in microscopic amounts and may not amount to any >discernible difference between samples that have settled twelve hours or >samples that have settled six. There is really only one way to determine >whether or not there is any "significant" difference between the two end >results. That would be to conduct the testing. > >On a firsthand note, as we don't use two-stage base processing, opting >instead for acid/base processing. As a result, we're not exactly in a >position to inform you definitively one way or the other. It's also >rather doubtful that very many people are in such a position, if only >for the reason that it would take some rather controlled experimentation >and the majority probably don't have the time or facilities to conduct >such testing. > >On the other hand, it shouldn't be too terribly difficult to conduct >some basic/crude testing at your own leisure to see if you can discern >any noticeable difference. > >A fair guess is that you wouldn't notice much, if any. Perhaps what >another question might be is "Do you really have need of expediting a >process?" If so, such as in an industrial/commercial environment, >testing might hold more validity for you than other bears of average brain. > >Todd Swearingen > > > > _______________________________________________ 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/
