Roger,
>I made two batches lately and both raise questions.
>The first... I tried stir-washing for the first time. The water
>separated out, slightly cloudy but I'm left with a thin butterscotch
>looking biodiesel. It's been settling for a few days, even added heat
>up to 165°F. No change. Any thoughts?
I stir-wash my BD. It is not unusual for the first wash to retain some
of the water.
I've never tried to heat it after the first wash. I do use warm water for my
washes. Successive washes should yield "cleaner" product.
Some things to note:
I make two grades of BD
-car fuel quality: passes quality test
-home heating fuel quality: slight residue on quality test
(incomplete reaction)
I am more likely to get slower separation of water and "butterscotch" BD
on the first wash with BD that fails the quality test.
You mentioned that you can take samples during processing. I suggest that
you make it a habit to sample the fuel prior to turning off the
processor/pumping to settling tank. Allow the sample to settle for 10 - 15
minutes. Do a quality test, (not a wash test). See JtF regarding (Jan W.)
"Quality Test". If the BD passes the Q.T. the reaction is finished, if not,
you might continue running the reactor or even adding a small amount of
methoxide and continuing the reaction.
Since "The water separated out ...." , I think successive washes with
warm water, if possible, will produce a clean product. It may turn out to
fail the quality test however.
Good Luck,
Tom
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <sustainablelorgbiofuel@sustainablelists.org>
Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2008 8:47 PM
Subject: [Biofuel] Bad Week?
I made two batches lately and both raise questions.
The first... I tried stir-washing for the first time. The water
separated out, slightly cloudy but I'm left with a thin butterscotch
looking biodiesel. It's been settling for a few days, even added heat
up to 165°F. No change. Any thoughts?
The second... I made a batch from a new oil source. I made a 1L test
batch with a titration of 5.6. Higher than what I used to but the test
batch came out good. I duplicated it on a 55gal batch; I mixed for 1
hour and held at 137°F for the process. Now I have some concoction that
has a watery-looking dark brown layer on top and a light brown on the
bottom. No glyercine separated. When I mix with the pump on the
reactor, the two layers don't want to mix together. It looks like milk
and alcohol. I did a wash test, mixing the tank while pulling a
sample. It looks water-soluble - no separation, no defined layers, just
a consistent mixture. Any thoughts here? It's not soap...so what is it?
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