in a moment of genius i mixed about 1/2 a liter of bio into a methanol container with 6 liters of recovered methanol. will this hurt any thing if i use it to process with.

thanks

Probably only, maybe, sometimes, if you don't account for needing possibly needing more methanol if the total qty needed was reduced by the 1/2 gallon.

In all seriousness, you shouldn't see any adversity, after all many processors don't completely drain and some bio is left in the processor at the start of the next batch.

You may see a bit of excess soap production that occurs from the bio being mixed with the methanol but I wouldn't suspect enough to have a negative effect the reaction.

I bet that when you add the caustic to the methanol/biodiesel to make your methoxide all of the biodiesel in the methanol will turn into soap.
If you use NaOH that might present itself as a gel.

I'd probably dump it back into your still and redistill the methanol back out

thanks for the input. i got to thinking about it, i just preformed the worlds largest 27/3 test . not sure how i will handle it yet, but i'll let you know when i decide........

no use as is..

the biodiesel might help improve the process..by helping the mixing of the oil and methanol..


-dkenny

quote:

Originally posted by dkenny:
no use as is..
the biodiesel might help improve the process..by helping the mixing of the oil and methanol..
-dkenny

Considering that the biodiesel will be converted into soap within a minute or two of adding the caustic to the methanol/biodiesel, I do not think the additional soap produced will help the reaction at all.
Any time I have added an excess of methoxide to biodiesel it results in excessive soap production.

EDIT
Just thought of a possible way around this. Do not use the methanol/biodiesel mixture to make methoxide with.
For instance, if you would usually use 7 gal of methanol to mix your Caustic into to make the methoxide, mix the total amount of caustic needed for the reaction with 6 gal of pure methanol and mix 1.08 gal of your methanol/biodiesel solution into the Oil being processed.
That way you should never have a major excess of caustic and methanol with your biodiesel.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Sloginphizz,

Slog,

Thats a great idea. sounds fool proof. then again i am the guy that cant work valves correctly .

thanks