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I first thought of this while reading this thread over in the ethanol forum. Turns out that the same principal that allows corn grits to dry ethanol may work well for other alcohols:
Abstract from this website. Kumar Plocher Yokayo Biofuels Fueled for Thought blog .........../ \.............. fueling / R \ evolution since 2001 '''''''''''''/____\''''''''''''''''''' Sustainable Biodiesel...  |
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Just for yucks I had to give it a try...
So I half filled a jar with ~ 500ml of washed bio. I added another ~500ml of water and shook it hard. After separation, the bio went hazy...I am assuming this is from picking up water... at least to the 1500ppm solubility level. I then decanted most of it to another container (leaving some in the initial jar with the water for control). To the second container I dumped in an unmeasured amount of corn grits I happen to have in the pantry (living here in GA). I stirred it up with a spoon for about 5 minuted,and left to stand. The bio still looked hazy after stirring. After about an hour I noticed the bio was clearing from the top down. This made me think perhaps the haze was not water, but very grits suspended. I left it overnight,and the next morning (around 14 hours later), the bio was very clear, with a thin layer of white material on top of the grits...looking like fine grit dust. Seems effective at first glance. May be fun to actually do some measured experiments to find out how much grit is needed to remove how much water. Here a pic of the two samples after 14 hours.  IMG_2847.jpg (53 Kb, 125 downloads) |
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Did you dry the corn grits first? Drying them in an oven prior to use might make them more effective.
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member 2008 Sponsor |
While using grits to dry biodiesel may work, it seams you will be left with a large quantity of biodiesel soaked grits.
If you use the grits to dry methanol, then the methanol/water can be easily evaporated from the grits and the grits can be reused to dry more alcohol. I don't know how you would evaporate biodiesel/water from the grits, so the grits could be reused to dry more bioidesel. |
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I wonder how walnut shells would work..
They're used in the automotive industry for drying part stampings. |
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Walnut shells? Might be easier to filter out when done.
Hammons Products of Stockton,MO are the largest processor of black walnuts in the world. And half their business is the nutshell for things from pharmaceuticals to blast media. Everything about their operation at: http://www.black-walnut.com |
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Yeah..using to dry bio may not be practical...
But perhaps after an acid stage one could flash meth/water off..then reclaim much of the meth by using the grits to dry it. |
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Bingo! Kumar Plocher Yokayo Biofuels Fueled for Thought blog .........../ \.............. fueling / R \ evolution since 2001 '''''''''''''/____\''''''''''''''''''' Sustainable Biodiesel... |
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Why wouldn't using grits to dewater bio be practical? If this were done on a farm based bio plant, the soggy cornmeal could be high calorie animal feed. As long as there were no significant amounts of unreacted methanol or lye left in the grits, they would be good eats.
Bio has good caloric value, doesn't it? I've seen a photo of a Chinese bio brewer proving the human and environmental safety of his brew by literally drinking a small glass of it. |
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How much do corn grits cost? I'd think bio-soaked grits would be good for burning..
1981 Mercedes-Benz 300SD |
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Grits cost less than potting soil, and taste much better!!! |
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It seems that the chemistry is such that the corn specifically ignores the alcohol and targets the water. While it would still target the water in the case of biodiesel, it may also get a bit biodiesel-soaked, which would be counterproductive. At least, that's a non-chemist's guess at it. Kumar Plocher Yokayo Biofuels Fueled for Thought blog .........../ \.............. fueling / R \ evolution since 2001 '''''''''''''/____\''''''''''''''''''' Sustainable Biodiesel... |
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Anyone tried rice instead of corn grits? I'm thinking of making a drying "cartridge" by trapping the rice or grits between some fine wire mesh and filtering the BD through it. That way the dry BD drains away.
de John G8SEQ |
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Could it be used to dry our reclaimed methanol? One would have to find a way to do this safely. When using the 5% prewash and only the standard condenser, the methanol has a high amount of water in it.
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I'd like to run a few lab tests this week or the next, if I get the time. Does anyone know where I could source dry Corn Grits?
The application I am thinking of is to purify our recovered methanol stream after acid esterification. Thanks for suggesting this one! -Nick |
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pappa, if you're getting a lot of water in the reclaimed methanol. try adding a reflux column and reducing the head temp at the top of the column.
I also use 5-10% prewash and get 98% or higher methanol during recovery. -dkenny '84 bluebird school bus, DD8.2L turbo 2006 Jeep Liberty CRD  - the wife'sthe Liberty is now running B100 99 dodge 2500 5.9l 24v..-mine its running B75 until the next fillup then it'll be higher moving to B100 |
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| <Nick Lockard>
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Hello.
Any dry carbohydrate material should work. The structural properties of carbohydrates are such that they LOVE to be hydrated. I'd use whatever's cheapest for maintaining your stored methanol at high concentrations; also it might be good for recovered methanol. I don't see how it could hurt biodiesel, but it might be slow due to viscosity and coating out by the BD. |
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There is a research paper on the web showing the effectivness of corn grits removing water from alcohol but they passed alcohol/water VAPOR through them rather than a liquid. I am a bit scheptical about removing much free water, this is based on cooking grits and polenta (actual uncooked ground corn, not pre-cooked instant grits), it takes a couple hours for corn grits to completely cook and absorbe much water even when being stirred in 100% boiling water?
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