There are numerous times in the wash cycle where it is necessary to drain off one compound from another. I was wondering what all methods people use. There are a few that I can think of, but all of these carry a loss of bio-d on every drain. I wondered if any one had found a way to reduce this loss.

I am still getting started, and consider myself a newbie -- but here goes ....

I know its been a while since you posted this question, but thought I would share. Since this was posted on "washing a small batch", I will tell you how I handle that specifically.

I took a Dr Pepper top and small short piece of copper tubing about 1 inch long ( like what you would use for the Dr Pepper viscometer ). I drilled a hole in the dr pepper top that was smaller than the outside of the copper tubing. Then I pushed it through from the inside of the top. I pushed it almost flush. To drain wash water from the bottle, I screw this top onto the bottle, place my finger over the end of the copper tubing, invert the bottle, and let it start coming out. Its important to squeeze the bottle slightly to prevent it from gurgling. Don't squeeze the bottle hard or fast, just enough to prevent it from sucking air back in. I drain out the water until its almost all gone. I usually leave just a little water in the neck of the bottle. Since I am usually doing multiple washes, I dont let any bio-diesel out until the very last wash.

If you want to spend a couple bucks, you can get a "separatory funnel". They are available from laboratory glassware places online. I got one for $30, but it's a POS (Piece of S***), so I'd spend around $50 and get a good one if you plan on doing more test batches. These are designed to separate liquids with minimal loss. They're pretty "fancy" and probably not necessary unless you're just anal about it like me.

I did .5L test batches in a 1L sep funnel.

ShakeTestSeparation.jpg (1,343 Kb, 48 downloads)