Water water every where and not a drop to spare.

quote:

In that case, salt/wood chip/resin columns offer advantages even if they're more expensive.

Depends on how expensive you want to make it. If you have access to free parts left over from who knows what project, you can build a cheap dry wash system. With the exception of the 20lbs of resin that I purchased for about $180 to get started, I bet I have less in my drywash system than most have in their water wash system. The resin is reusable and can be regenerated for many years of usage. Water is a constant cost.

Eurocab,
I'm with you on recycling old 'junk'.
Most of the money I've spent on everthing I have was toward brass ball valves.
I hunt for deals and parts. My $400 diaphragm pump was found in a scrap pile, It just needed a rebuild kit at $150. Pumped 2500 gallons with it today.

I'm building a carbon steel resin tower.
Let me ask, how much fuel do expect your 20 lbs of resin to hold up?
I just got 30 lbs. I think I read that 30 lbs will wash 1000 gallons. More than my 1st annual goal.

Brian

My dry wash system cost next to nothing, and I'm about to modify it to make it almost labour free for a nominal sum:

Processor pumps raw biodiesel into a 200L garden water butt with tap containing 100L sawdust (costing nothing) which drains under gravity into a 200L long and low plastic domestic cold water reservoir overnight, which is pumped into another 200L water butt next day.

Much cheaper, quicker and much less labour than water washing, no emulsions, no soap or glycerol drop out, and no blocked fuel filters.

Brian,

I guess it depends on which resin you use, how much soap/glycerine/water is in your BD, configuration of towers, a lot of variables. I have seen claims of 100 gallons per pound. I think 50 would be a more solid number for homebrewers. But if you have a good setup, you don't have to change out the resin -- just flush out the soap/glycerine with methanol.

Legal probably has some good numbers on Purolite. I really don't keep records, so I can only give you a guess. After a year of usage, I have finally started flushing my resin with methanol to remove the impurities and I guess I have produced 1000 gallons in that time frame.

GCG of Arbor Biofuels as well as Graydon Blair sells resin and could probably give you some solid numbers.

I think using wood shavings to remove the bulk of soap prior to sending the BD through the resin columns will result in a number closer to 100 gallons/lb of Thermax -- maybe even higher.

Jehu,

Sounds like a pretty efficient setup. I had to google water butt to see what you were describing.

So have you stopped using resin?

Yea, a butt is something else across the pond

My resin ran out about 5 months ago and I had already experimented enough with wood shavings for me to switch over when it ran out. I've now moved on to sawdust, which is even better than shavings. The resin was costing about £340/25kg (maybe $500 - 600?; it was a big step up from water washing but the sawdust does the same job and costs me next to nothing.

I use Maple shavings to purify my Bio, as Jehu says, cost next to nothing, crystal clear shake em up test, etc I won`t be using Water or Resins again.

Too much argro drying the Bio not to mention the Electricity and Water costs, when Water Washing.

Here is the chipper. Gravity feeds into the side, trickles through the wood to the bottom. Pumped back up to the salt column and trickles down through the lid and over the woodchips again. I have 80 gallons demathing aas we type. 48 hours and we shall see.

woodchipper.JPG (36 KB, 44 downloads)

Salt column

salt_column.JPG (46 KB, 40 downloads)

guts of the column

guts.JPG (31 KB, 35 downloads)

Three test vials. The one on the left is nothing done to it. Just brewed and settled. The middle has had woodchips and a salt pellet/ methanol still in the mix. The right side I bubble the heck out of it with a bubbler and then put the woodchips/salt for the same amount of time then removed it. I can visibly see a differnece in the middle and the right. Not what I wanted to see in the right vial but I did not take a lot of time to run off the methanol. I will do it today when I get home.

tres_hombre_test.JPG (31 KB, 45 downloads)

Inside the woodchipper.

I might cut another 55 gallon drum in half and weld it to the top of this drum to add to the woodchip volume. the height of the woodchips in the barrel is about 20 inches. I am going to see the results of what I have before I do anything else.

chips.JPG (35 KB, 63 downloads)

If I have any problems with the salt column then I will get rid of it and put a bowl like screen on top of the woodchips inside the barrel where the recirculating spray will spray right into the salt and then to the wood chips. It would have been easier and quicker.

A better explanation.

The green dots are gravity feed from the settle tower.
Blue line in the expanded metal shelf holding up the wood chips.
Red arrows indicate the re-circulating flow.
Brown dots are off to the wash barrel when done.
Purple arrow is the valve that shuts off the flow to the woodchipper and sends it to wash.

woodchipper.JPG (23 KB, 60 downloads)

Wal, you should be getting much clearer looking biodiesel than that - I suspect your woodchips arent fine enough.

quote:

Originally posted by Jehu:
Wal, you should be getting much clearer looking biodiesel than that - I suspect your woodchips arent fine enough.

Hello Jehu, The vial on the let is just settled BD, the middle had wood and salt in it then removed. The outer was demethed wood added and salt. It was all the way properly demethed nor was it forced through wood. The wood shavings were merely placed in the vial and removed after 5 minutes.

I posted the reults in the shake em up test on GBD area. The results were outstanding so far as soap removal, I am guessing at around 50 % less soap. I am positive once I get the 80 gallons demethed, settled and through the woodchipper it will go through the wash tanks quickly.

Wal,

I think you may need to let the BD and wood chips get to know each other a little longer.

quote:

Originally posted by Eurocab:
Wal,

I think you may need to let the BD and wood chips get to know each other a little longer.

I agree I was just testing to see if any results would appear and they did. For the short time they were together the soap was lower.

Hi wal1809

I thought your design is doing circulation?

Do a circulation for a while and post result? Maybe result after 15mins circulate, 30mins circulate, 1hour circulate...etc?

looking forward for your pictures =)