Quick question that I haven't been able to find a good answer for using the "find" feature. I gather that to get the most out of ion exchange polishing or cellulose washing, most people are settling and only running the least soap-dense solution through their columns.

What do you do with the bottom third that has most of the soap?

I settle and water wash, but have the glop at the bottom to deal with. It's more like 5-10% for me, but I work hard at using a minimum of catalyst and processing until it's done but not a lot more, so I have a lot less soap to deal with. Oh yes, I also have to run an acid stage since my oil usually titrates around 8.

To answer your question, I drain it off into 5 gallon pails, then titrate it with acid and add that much to split the soap. Once it's split it goes into the next batch for processing.

I really don't like wasting the oil, and couldn't conceive of throwing a third of it on the compost pile.

--- David

I have been dumping the liquid into a different drum and pouring the new BD on top of it.


I throw the soap/glycerin/BD mix into my next batch of WVO with the glycerol from the previous batch as a pretreatment to bring down the titration.

I am eager to try what Dave just mentioned (I already bought the sulfuric acid), but I cut one of my fingers on the table saw a couple of weeks ago and I am out of commission for about another week. Fortunately my last diesel purchase was at only $2.39/gallon. I can live with that for now.