Bob Carr wrote: >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Chris Bennett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: <biofuel@sustainablelists.org> >Sent: Friday, May 05, 2006 8:29 PM >Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Sweet catalyst & continuous processes > > >Hi Chris, > >Have you tried the sugar catalyst for yourself yet? Looking forward to >reading your results. >Who is making this catalyst in the UK? or alternatively do you have a "make >it at home" recipe? I would love to give it a go. > >I am also working on a continuous processor down here in Northants, although >it seems I am a few steps behind you. I would be happy to compare notes if >you want. >Right now on ebay uk there are a couple of very useful looking peristaltic >pumps that could be used for metered feeding of methoxide and wvo into a >continuous processor. >Please keep me posted on your progress > >Regards >Bob > > >>I have just got a small sample of the catalyst. I plan to make 2x 0.5 >>litre batches on my hotplate stirrer. 1 with lye as normal 1 with sugar. >>I will boil off the excess methanol and measure the quantities of >>byproduct produced to compare the lack of soap claims. I will do some >>wash tests to see how clean the diesel is. >> >>looks like instant coffee granules, it would be quite easy to enclose a >>quantity in a mesh cylinder and place inside one of the reactor pipes >>after the pump. Or even have a short length of pipe with a strainer at >>the downstream end filled with the stuff, just pump the mix over it >>repeatedly. Just unscrew the length of pipe and 'top up' when required. >>Maybe a piece of translucent hose could be incorporated to give a >>visual indication of you catalyst levels. As long as it could be removed >>to top it up, or have an access point upstream of the strainer to pour >>more in it should work fine. >> >>Chris.. >> >> >>_______________________________________________ >>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/ > > > > > > Tha catalyst is apparently made as follows:
Place sugar into a sealed container and purge the air with notrogen, alternatively feed a small amount of nitrogen into the container during cooking to keep the air out. Heat to 350 degrees C and hold for about 15 hours (I think, not 100% on time) Then remove the burnt sugar and place in concentrated sulphuric acid at 150 degrees C for several hours. Wash repeatedly with deinonised water and then its ready for use. Have got a 2nd hand oven last week to try (dont fancy using the one in the kitchen as its going to need to go 100 degrees over the maximum!) will wire in a temperature controller next week and see if it can cope with the extra temperature. My processor is not continuous, but more like semi-continuous. I have designed it on the assumptions that: the more vigarous the mixing the quicker the reaction. the higher the temperature the greater the energy available to make the reaction happen the pressure needed because of the high temperature operation will also increase the energy available. I read a paper about some studies using 'supercritical' methanol and claims were made of reaction times on small samples being quoted in seconds! The processor consists of 3 stages each stage has a mixer and contains 6 litres. A pair of stainless pnumatic cylinders will push measured quantities of oil and methoxide in every x minuites (x to be determined my trial and error) the fresh mix will consist of 3 litres and will displace 3 litres from reactor 1 into reactor 2 where it will recieve another x minuites of mixing, the next charge will displace it into reactor 3 and so on until it gets spat out into an evaporator tower at a temperature where the methanol should start to flash off immediately. After leaving the heated evaporator it will enter a seperating tower sized so that seperation only has to occur over about 2.3cm of depth. The products will be injected into the seperating tower at the point of seperation and this will allow a good several hours of seperating time before it overflows from the top. Glycerine will be drained automatically using an optical sensor at the bottom of the tower. I need to experiment with the results of Magnesol washing to see if the wash stage can also be included into the processor. I currently produce only about 4-500 litres a month and I collect my oil monthly. The legislation in the UK means I have to make batches of 80 litres wvo + methoxide and in my current processor including settling this is taking 24 hours a batch. I hope to do the whole batch of 500 litres in 24 hours. If the processor is scaled up to meet the 'process 100 litres max at any one time' legislation I should be able to process 2500 litres a day on 8 hour shifts! The reactor should be very compact, the reactor tubes are 0.75 metres in length and can be stacked in a triangle configuration or even mounted vertically. I just need to find some more time to get the welding finished off and then hopefully I can get it all plumbed together and tested. The mixing is being done using Grundfos centeral heating pumps with the scroll removed as I have a box full of these and they seem WVO/biodiesel tolerant (have been using them regularly for about 2 years now and they show no signs of deterioration after continuously being submerged in the diesel processor.) I currently process in my 80 litre batch reactor using 2 of these pumps and the process time is reasonable. Each one is 120watts so the rate of mixing will be in the order of 20W/litre compared to my current rate of 3 W/litre. there are also 3 rows of fixed mixing blades in the tubes to aid the reaction. The cost of the reactor is significantly less than the savings I get in fuel costs over one month so its not been too bad. Construction is 316 stainless so it should be good for a few million litres. Chris.. _______________________________________________ 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/
