quote:

Originally posted by Dean Moriarty:
Hi Sam, it's such a shame the way things went here and all because of one guy. It was a great little group and I do miss it.

Dean

The 'way things went' was entirely because people would not ignore the taunts from a troll. If people had refused to respond to the trolls childish taunts then this section would be alive and well.

Nothing prevents anyone from posting info here now.

I hear you John, I was happy to ignore but I guess others just had enough and couldn't stomach any more, like I said it is a shame.

It was funny when he popped up over on VOD (one of the UK forums), he wasn't given any change there and quickly disappeared.

As far as I know he was restricted on VOD to his own section, and is not allowed to post on the main forum.

Unfortunately those who have that power on this forum don't have the interest to do anything about the troll.
Banishment by refusing to respond to any troll comments is still the most effective means of weeding trolls out of discussions.

quote:

I guess others just had enough and couldn't stomach any more, like I said it is a shame.

They could have placed the troll on their ignore list so they wouldn't see it's comments but they didn't, which shows that they didn't really care about the subject but enjoyed watching the 'fighting'.

If people truly cared about the technical discussion it would have continued, perhaps it was just the "Imakebiodiesel" discussion, and when he refused to play the troll's games, somehow people lost interest.

Here is a question. If one uses vacuum to distil methanol say in whole batch demeth say at .5 of a bar vacuum how do you calculate the temp required to only evaporate the methanol?

My vacuum system is in the testing stage but I melted the housing of the mechanical seal through pump running dry. so I am ready to test again. I have a replaceable reflux tube. replaceable with camlocks. One for water and one for methanol. My thought was to distil off the methanol first and then the water. Or is this wrong thinking?

quote:

Originally posted by john galt:
Unfortunately those who have that power on this forum don't have the interest to do anything about the troll.
Banishment by refusing to respond to any troll comments is still the most effective means of weeding trolls out of discussions.

quote:

I guess others just had enough and couldn't stomach any more, like I said it is a shame.

They could have placed the troll on their ignore list so they wouldn't see it's comments but they didn't, which shows that they didn't really care about the subject but enjoyed watching the 'fighting'.

If people truly cared about the technical discussion it would have continued, perhaps it was just the "Imakebiodiesel" discussion, and when he refused to play the troll's games, somehow people lost interest.

I always tried to reason and explain things but at the end of the day I was just wasting my time. You are probably correct john and I should activate the ignore button.

For me, IMB's absence is a big loss, but it doesn't stop me posting, times change.

Sam, hello. when I used to reclaim methanol I did it in a 400 litre s/steel pressure vessel. Of course the pressure bit doesn't mean it was good for vacuum, and it wasn't. i used to apply vacuum and crack open the bottom tap which would pull in air. I restricted the tap until the internal pressure was minus 5psi when the temperature got to 45degsC I would start to get methanol condensing.
Obviously the throughput of air was causing methanol vapour at the low temperature.

Hi DJS. Thanks for this. This is good info. 5 psi is .357 of a bar Good to know. I will report back when I try again.

Hi Dgs,

quote:

Originally posted by Dgs:
I always tried to reason and explain things but at the end of the day I was just wasting my time.

I think one of the problems he had was trying to understand why, when performing the 3/27 test or one of it's variations, it was only the drop-out that occurred in the first 15 minutes of the test that counted.
Apparently any drop-out that happened after 15 minutes was said to not count.

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

Sam Sleeman; There's a formula for the boiling point of a low boiling liquid dissloved in a high boiling liquid, like methanol in biodiesel, but maybe you know it's not methanol in pure biodiesel in a whole batch demeth. There's soap, water, glycerine, methanol, biodiesel, some mono and diglycerides. There is a formula taught in 11th grade chemistry here in high school, but I'm not sure it exactly predicts the boiling point of methanol in whole batch demething. Without looking it up, there are so many details to remember, so, I'm looking it up. In Chemistry 4th edition, by McMurry & Fay, Published by Prentice Hall (New Jersey, USA) in 2004,on page 450 it gives Boiling-Point Elevation and Freezing point Depression of Solutions, "The boiling-point elevation of a solution relative to that pure solvent depends on the concentration of the dissolved particles..." The change in boiling point (delta T boiling) for a solution is, delta T boiling = molal boiling point-point-elevation constant characteristic of each solvent times the molal concentration of solute particles. The concentration must be expressed in molality- number of moles of solute particles per kilogram of solvent- rather than molarity so the solute concentration is independant of temperature. In the short table given in the book the Molal Boiling-point-elevation constants (K boiling) for common substances methanol is not given but ethanol is given as 1.22 Constant boiling (centigrade degrees times kilograms/divided by molality). There are some more formulas later relating to the disorderedness of a material (mix of liquids) that entropy and the energy of a system enthalpy, but it's been a long time since I did that calculation. The boiling point of the biodeisel is pretty much ignored while the boiling point elevation goes up of methanol relative to the percentage of moles of methanol present. The best way to boil out most of the excess methanol and water is with a vacuum still. Maybe you see the mathmatical formula exists for figuring your boiling point but the practical way is to do it and monitor the distillate coming off and its rate, possibly relating to the temperature of the boiling pot (empirically determined).

OK Thanks Wesley. I see the difficulty straight away so yes the empirical method. anyway I have a starting point. Thanks for bothering to respond.

Sam Sleeman

Sam Sleeman; Another way to answer that question might be, Yes via the empirical method I demethed biodiesel that had the lower glycerine layer removed. My vacuum still wil not be crushed even by a complete vacuum, it is a small 1 litre size still, made of specialty lab glass. Any way the crude biodiesel with the glycerine layer removed, still has excess methanol in it, so when I demethed the crude biodiesel, at a vacuum pressure of about 304 millimeters above zero pressure, the still head thermometer temperature was 36 degrees centigrade and rose to 40 degrees centigrade when I shut down, turned off the still. That 36-40 degrees centigrade was the boiling point of the methanol, possibly with some water vapor involved travelling with the methanol vapor. The hot oil bath I had the boiling pot (boiling flask) partially immersed in was as hot as 128 degrees centigrade. I was using a single stage diaphram electric vacuum pump I salvaged from the trash of a medical supply business when it was going out of business, years ago. I carried 2 of those salvaged vacuum pumps maybe 2 miles, home. Once I got them home I took peices off both of them to have one working vacuum pump. It's still going and is quite useful for small applications like a small vacuum still, or vacuum filtration.

Hello Guys, long time no see.
Several members have kindly requested that I return to the forum and I thought it better to answer them here on this thread. A lot has been happening with me since I left, my research on biodiesel and particularly on glycerol, most of which was published here, has paid off. A company in Northern Ireland who reprocesses raw glycerol into commercial and products has hired me as a consultant engineer.. The work is interesting and exciting and we are currently developing a new industrial use for glycerol.
However much of the work is commercially sensitive and I would constantly have to censor any any information I might pass on.
As well as that, my small vintage tool business has mushroomed to the point Im spending 2 hours at the computer every day dealing with sales ( http://www.adverts.ie/search/user-727864 )so I really dont have the time to devote to the forum.
Dean , I may be able to help you with an oil supply, give me a call on 086 3169230

Hi John, nice to see you are doing so well. On the downside I'm sorry you don't have the time to post.

Wishing you all the best in your new venture, Dave.

Hi guys

I have in total 200 liters of vegetable glycerol to give away in 20l canisters, drums. Anyone interested in Dublin area just let me know. I can drop it off in a car.

I hope no one minds me mentioning but I couldn't see any one saying that lime tree wood is good ----No not Norwegian wood Lime tree wood--- you see I once bought ---yes bought a couple of lime tree diffusers but they were quite small at 2" x 1" x 1" so I went on our Park & saw they'd cut down a Lime Tree so I nipped back for a saw & hey presto bigger & better bubbling.... They last ages too. Weight with a couple of 10 mm stainless nuts to the prescribed depth...... The silicone 4mm tubes soon go stiff after a bit but I keep a check on them & replace as necessary but I sometimes have to fish the bubbler out of the bottom of the finishing tank..........
Best regards ---- I wonder if I'll get some sh*t now from you know who beginning with a letter T....
The Australian violinist no less !!!!!!! does any one know who I mean ?

I have absolutely no idea who you are talking about Pressurejet.

Are you saying that Lime tree wood is the same as the sander air diffusers.

Cheers, Dave.

Hi Pressurejet,

quote:

Originally posted by Pressurejet:
Best regards ---- I wonder if I'll get some sh*t now from you know who beginning with a letter T....
The Australian violinist no less !!!!!!! does any one know who I mean ?

The only Australian Violinist that comes to mind who's name starts with T is Richard Tognetti. I can not imagine him giving you any sh*t.

Hi all,

Anyone interested in the Meath area in a couple of hundred Litres of waste veg oil (1.5 to 2 year of settling) and 10 or so empty barrels used for collecting it? It's all free, I haven't had time for processing in a year or more. I need to make the space now.

Let me know.

Glyncell- 0857218495

I know this is a long shot as this forum is more or less dead now but can anyone help me out with some veg oil, I'm struggling to get my hands on some again.

Hi Dean, nice to see you are still brewing. I could certainly help you out but it's the distance!

There is a guy in NI who makes bio, I think he cleans fryers, he always seems to have plenty of oil. I can pm you his No if you want.

Regards, Dave.