Hi To all!

After months of looking around on the internet trying to find an Ion Exchange Tower that was sized correctly we decided to make our own. We are a distributer of Purolite who manufactures the Ion Resin. Our back ground is industrial sized equipment. However, after recieving tons of calls for Small scale equipment and not finding anything; we designed and fabricated our own. With the help of Graydon Blair with Utah Biodiesel they have really taken off and become a big hit. Here are some things to consider:
Purolite recomends the following Amounts of purolite per GPM

15GPM=2200lbs

Our system does:
0.5GPM = 73lbs

If you are using less, not using in the correctly sized container, to little bed debth, trying to re-circulate etc...you are wasting the beads capacity and simply going against the manufacturers recomendations.

Please visit our web site for more information:

DryWashBiodiesel.com

We have used Ion Resin for a couple of years now and really know alot about how to use it properly and extend its life. Let me know if you have any questions.nathan@biodieselexpertsintl.com

New_Ion_Tower_WEB1_.jpg (24 KB, 1031 downloads) The Dry Wash Biodiesel Tower: 0.5GPM

I've been really impressed with the stuff Biodiesel Experts International has put out.

They're from the commercial side of things & moving into the home brew segment with dry washing systems and, like the BioPro's, their Dry Wash towers are industrial grade.

Plus, like several other reputable vendors out there, these guy's are great to talk to on the phone.

Yep. It's a big tower & looks big, but it really is sized right & if you use it right, it'll last you a long, long time.

This is what their tower looks like:



-Graydon

"Over 6ft Tall!"

WoW! I thought these things would be closer to four feet or less. That is really tall.

Do these things have filters in them to get the Ion Resin out, or do they act like a filter?

How much Ion Resin does it take to fill one of these things up - what is the cost of the resin to fill the tower?

According to their website, there is 150 mesh stainless steel screen in place to hold the beads and the system holds 73lbs of resin. The beads will wash 100 gallons per pound when designed to correct specifications like The Dry Wash Biodiesel Tower and all the proper procedures are taken. So the system can wash 7,300 gallons of biodiesel. The cost of the resin is $511.00 for 73 lbs.

$511 / 7,300 gallons = 0.07 = 7 cents per gallon in added costs. The thing costs $2,250, so you have to figure what:
# No water waste!
# No more emulsions or soaps caused by water.
# No need to dry you biodiesel.
# Simple, quick and easy loading and unloading.
# No Filters that clog and are hard to empty.
# Long periods of time before you need new resin, most will only use one resin bed a year.
# All steel construction.
# Think Long Term Cost, how much money, time and effort will this system save you in the next 10-20 years? You will be amazed!
# The Dry Wash Biodiesel Tower is designed for biodiesel and is fabricated from raw materials

is worth to you.

Pretty friggin' cool though!

Ryan,

you hit it on the nose!

Filmore- A tower this designed to the correct specs should have at least 2-2.5 ft of virgin media, then have room for it to expand to double its size.

Also here is a pic to show the huge side flange for easy unloading (6in dia) and the bottom flange that you can take off to clean the screen.

Side_and_bottom_web.jpg (15 KB, 201 downloads)

Nice!

How much methanol and soap content will the purolite handle?

Do you run the esters though without methanol recovery first?

Can/should you do a 5% prewash first?

What's the process for a homebrewer?

Too many questions?



Thanks,

Bob in Moncure

Well they dont really give us a specific amount. Basically how it works is as follows:

The less soap you feed the beads the better! The more soap the more contaminated they become! If you settle then most of the soap will go out with the glycerin and it will be fine.
(Also - Look into acid esterification to treat your FFA's so that you dont make soap! I am sure www.utahbio.com has something about it)

Methanol, if you can, i would recomend gravity settle, then move the BD thru the beads with the methanol in it and then recover methanol after.(The concept here is that the beads will become exausted of methanol and let it pass thru, adsorbing the remaining impurities, keeping the biodiesel "thinner") If you like taking you methanol out before wash thats fine it will remove some residual methanol if you have any.

Water wash, Water washing before is ok, it will extend the life of your beads because you are taking out impurities before, However i would then dry before going thru the beads. The beads have some moisture capabilities but not enough to dry after a water wash.
Process-
From your tranesterification i would settle out my glycerin as long as you can 12-24hr then drain.(if you still want water wash do it here and then dry)
Move BD to the beads at the proper flow rate (ours is 0.5GPM or 1GPm with 2) then i would do methanol recovery and final polishing filters if needed.

I hope i answered them all! let me know if you have more.

Quick Note:

You do methanol recovery after tower so there is no residual glycerin, so when doing methanol recovey there is no reverse reaction.

Nathan - drywashbiodiesel.com

Is the 6ft the total height or does that include the legs? What I am asking is what is the total height requirement?

How long does it take to process a batch, and is it temp sensitive?

Biodiesel Systems - It is 7 ft tall total.

SuperBio- Maximum Temp for the beads is 300F. It will work at any temperature as long as the BD is not gelling up.
The system is rated for 0.5GPM(gallon per minute) so 40Gallon batch takes 1hr20min - 100gallon batch takes 3hrs15min - There is not moving parts so you can leave it while it runs thru.

PD_206WEB.jpg (22 KB, 144 downloads)

Why not just make one out of a large PVC pipe and cool your biodiesel before it gets there to below 120F. Would only cost maybe 50 bucks...

That is pretty much how much our column cost and it's made of stainless

Check out the pics at the following forum.

http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5521001332/m/9791004142

I'm not selling these. Although you should be able to find all the parts locally.

--
Jeff Brandt
Sun Break Biofuels, LLC
http://www.sunbreakbiofuels.com
mailto:jeffb@sunbreakbiofuels.com

WOW...

You guys deserve an award !!

Dan

Hey everyone,
I am new to this forum actually to all but i would like to ask a few questions of anyone with information. I am currently using a Bio Pro 380 and making fuel none stop since i bought. I heard through the grapevine that AGR Energy is working on a Dry wash system that can work along side of the 380. Has anyone heard of this and what information can you provide. i believe probably Graydon would be a great source if you could respond. Any information you can give me would be great thank you very much for you time.

Peter

Firefighter,

Call AGR and ask about the system in question. I haven't seen as much of Graydon on the forums as of late, but it is the busy time of year for the Biodiesel business.

Thanks i will do so!

Is the flow controlled incoming, or outgoing?

Graydon is on vacation!

When the resin is used up, how do you dispose of it?