I just finished my first attempt at recovery. Much slower than I realized. I put about 45 gallons of finished fuel in my processor and removed about 1.5 gallons in 12 hours. I have a 4500 watt heating element wired for 110 and a plumbers delight and venturi. I did learn that if I increased the amount that the venturi was sucking, the quicker the recovery, but it still seemed slow. My question is, did I remove all or close to all of the methanol that was available? And, what do I do now? let it settle and use it or wash with water, or ? I did let it settle in the processor for 4 days, and drained off a very small amount of glycerine, maybe a 1/2 teaspoon, and maybe a quart of slightly cloudy fuel. If it matters, I use 20% methanol for my reaction.

First question:
what temperature are you using, and how is your heating element being controlled (ie thermostat, no thermostat and bypassed, PID, variac, etc)?

if you're running with a thermostat, a pot still will take FOREVER to work. I haven't tried using a GL-1 venturi with a thermostat but I can't imagine that this wouldnt be a problem there either.

I bypassed my thermostat and ran the demething up to 200F. My pump is rated to 210 and did not want to burn it up (been there and done that on the real first attempt). Can't tell you the name of the pump off the top of my head, but I purchased it from murphy's machines.

I am just amazed how you guy's do this without having a major accident i.e. running hot bio via pumps over a really long time and unsupervised.... venturi's bugger that.

The time it takes you and the power driving this process is crazy...

Just seal off all your plumbing from your Appleseed with taps and bring in a bubbling tube above the bio level into the processor and down to below the element.. turn on your bubbler while heating the bio and allow the methanol to exit the processor to your condensor... Easy low cost and I can recover metahnol quickly and safely, I have been doing this for 3 years now and works a treat... when GL was mucking around with venturi's and pumping bio I came up with this method and stuck with it....

As to your question about what next. One thing I'd recommend is getting it out of your processor immediately and into a settling tank. Soap will start to drop out immediately and you don't want it in the bottom of your processor. While it's still warm out of the processor bubble it for 12-24 hours to drive off any remaining methanol. Make sure you vent off the fumes.