Hello, John here.
This site has been a real help for me as I have been succesful with small batches using 250ml of methanol, but how do you know how much to use with bigger batches such as 60 or 90 litres? Is the a formula? thanks

Hey John,
This is the one I use.
http://www.biodieselcommunity.org/recipecalculator/

I found this calculator and like the options it gives you. You can choose between KOH or NAOH and also the purity of your Lye. Try this one.
http://www.biodieselvideos.com/calculator.htm

I have wondered to extremes - if I use an excess (perhaps even extreme excess) amount of methanol with the knowledge (or opinion) that methanol recovery will prevent the excess from being "wasted" - will I speed reaction time and/or conversion percentage?

I've searched and searched.... I can find no absolute opinion(s) that excess methanol is harmful to the reaction itself.


To simplify my question, can I just add 30 to 40% methanol without adverse effects on the BD conversion?

Vic

I do not have a definite answer but have talked with the students and the professor at the Cal Poly Pomona University campus and they claim it will not hurt and just come out in the glycerine. If you have no way to recover the methanol your just throwing money away. They have a complete biodiesel processor set up and have been making biodiesel successfully for about three years now. They are also working on better ways to recover methanol and they have set up a process to wash the bio-d in 2 hours. Anyone interested in their findings should contact the John T. Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies at Cal Poly Pomona.