I ran into a "snag" with my washing using the patented "Dr. Pepper method" (I am sure the Pepper people got royalties for the use of the name).
My problem is with the using the thumb as a valve. I found out the hard way and one ruined batch that the bubbles sucked in by the water escaping the bottle, mixed the water and BD together again. This led me to settle it out again. After another hour I tried to slowly let water and smaller bubbles go by with same result. Upset, I ditched it and started another batch tonight and after work will try something else. Any suggestions? Is some of the water supposed to stay? I ended up with a bottle of only 35% BD after trying to drain out water. I believe the mess I made was what you may call emulsified? I appreciate any help as the petro diesel prices are killing me!

Thank you,
Rob
P.s. I am just a guy trying to get this going and not a chemist so any laymans terms you can use would be helpful as well.

Hello Arrowthwr, welcome to the exciting world of biodiesel!

I am sorry to hear you have had problems.
I have updated the instructions to the World Famous Dr Pepper Wash Technique (Paty Pend) as a result of your experience.

You do not want air bubbling back through the water as the bottle is being emptied. Squeeze the sides of the bottle as the water empties.

I have a question about washing and cloudy results.

I made 2 small batches 500ml each and tried different amounts of lye and methanol in each.
Both came out the same and look nice just not clear. This is new soyoil I am using.

both reacted quickly but after two days still kinda cloudy, I am in the wash phase now but am wondering why my tests don't look clear like on the home page http://www.biodieselcommunity.org/index.php

am I just not letting it settle enough, I am in San Diego so it is pretty warm here. I will continue a few more washes and dry it then see how it looks.

Thanks for any help

I bought an air pump for a fish tank from Walmart for $10 and used it with an air stone ($1.50 from WallyWorld) and let that bubble away in my washed biodiesel. It cleared it in about 15 minutes, but didn'nt completely remove all the water in the product for about 2 hours.

Before the bubbler, it took 2 or 3 days to clear up in an open jar.

My test batches have good seperation and are pretty clear. When I enter the wash stage, gently, gently, gently, rolling a couple of times and draining... the BD clouds up and isn't clear anymore.

I still get good seperation of the water and oil during the wash, but it still remains cloudy. Is this normal?

Am I to assume that it will clear after a few days of settling?

I might try the bubbler tech as well after several washes to see how that works to clear it up.

I've also wondered if vibration would help the seperation as it seems to help when I snap the side of the bottle with my finger.

Andy

biodiesel likes to hold onto water, the cloudiness in your biodiesel is water, if left open topped in a warm place(on top of a radiator) then the water should evaporate and the biodiesel should clear, alternatively you can spray dry it.
http://www.biodieselcommunity.org/dryingwashedbiodiesel/

Chug

Chug

Thanks for the responce. I've read a good deal of the Collaborative Tutorial, but I guess I should have kept reading. Got all excited about making BD and I didn't finish the study...

hey, that happens- it's a lot of info to digest at one sitting.

Mark