Are there any companies/individuals that sell Methanol Recovery Units?

I am getting rid of my Appleseed, and have ordered a BioPro 190. I am looking into the ideas of recovering my methanol from the Glycerin. I do not have the time to build something, but would be interested in purchasing a unit from a company and/or individual. Thanks!

Check out this link. I think their system includes the reactor, reflux coil for methanol recovery & a dry wash system.


http://arborbiofuelscompany.com/calendar.html

Why not just build one? I have, since this photo was taken, replaced the pail with a 50Lt water heater but kept the condenser and fittings. I needed to process more volume per session.
Works great !

Legal's got an effective design, it is essentially the same as our pot-still except our pot-still unit utilizes a 30 gallon drum equipt with an additional stainless steel reflux column and condenser.

For an additional cost we can work in a vacuum assist as well.

We have included a drain valve on the unit as well so that opening the drum isn't necessary for removal of the contents.

GCG

GCG,

How much with and without the Vacuum Assist?

Legal,

Impressive work. It appears that the pipe you are using is made of some sort of plastic. Does it matter which type. Would PVC work? Thanks.

I am beginning to accumulate a lot of glycerin, so I will be buying your book soon. I'll have to talk my wife into it first. I have plenty of irons in the fire already.

Euro,

Ya it is drain pipe. Since the coiled copper is containing the methanol vapors the PVC is only in contact with the cooling water/fluid. Therefore not likely to melt due to over heating since the cooling water also cools any connections which come in contact with the copper tubing at each end of the condenser.

Saying this however, it could be made out of metal pipe nearly as easily... but for a little more cash. We used the same tap on the PVC that you would use on black pipe but reduction bushings and 2" T's would make it possible to make these with out any tapping.


Keep in mind that if you go with the vacuum assist - a second condenser would be necesssary or you would have to have more coils/a longer tube. Additionally the vacuum pulls out the methanol so rapidly at first, we use the 1/4" tubing rather than the 1/8". The 1/4" is significantly more difficult to form into coils and involves a little trick in order to do it successfully...

GCG

Still interested in recovering some methanol. Any new updates with companies/individuals willing to build a unit? I do not have the time to build one for myself. Thanks.

Like I mentioned the pail, which was fully operational with a drain spout ect just wasn't big ebnough so I replaced it with a Giant 50Lt water heater and just used the plumbing I already had to re-pipe it.

The condenser is a 2" standard water drain pipe available almost everywhere, along with a roll of soft copper. I kept the copper coil small so that it wouldn't kink when I coiled it around a piece of pipe. The more traditional way of accomplishing this with larger diameter soft copper is to first fill the copper pipe with salt and then proceed to coil it.

The way I've run the copper tube out of the pot (high curved coil) refluxes a certain amount of the methanol, but in general it operates exactly as a pot still would.

The condenser's water supply is reverse fed, meaning it enters at the bottom and comes out the top. The flow is not that important for the amounts I process, but I still use a ShurFlo pump for this duty. The pump's cooling is assisted using a small table fan.

I have my water supply in a 100Lt drum so it is always the same water I use thereby not using any at all since getting rid of water washing in favour of resin purification.

I process +/- 30-32Lt's glycerine per batch. I save the recovered methanol in a separate drum to the fresh and meter the amount reintroduced into each subsequent batch, using only a small amount of recovered and the rest fresh methanol.
This method has helped me stretch a drum of methanol for a few extra hundred litres worth of biodiesel production.

HTH

Im interested too in a ready to go small recovery unit.

quote:

I am getting rid of my Appleseed, and have ordered a BioPro 190.

Then just build the reflux column using Legal's design and use the Appleseed as the boiler pot - like I've done. Works GREAT!

I went to the local garden center and got a small fountain pump to recirc my coolant water and wired it so when power to the element is on, the pump is recirculating.