be sure to use a strong light to detect separation..

I remember the first time I had some 'bad' oil..funny now I take all the oil that titrated that low, i think was 7 or 8....either way I thought my sample batch had no separation until I caught the sun shining just right..then I could see the line..

in my plastic reactor I use a 500w flood light place right against the side..sometimes its just enough.


if it was a false high..there was Naoh in the oil..since your using KOH you might be ok..if you're still game to try something else..do you have any NaOH? try this instead of KOH...no the goal isn't to make BD but to prove you can make glop...too much Naoh or not enough methanol..I tried this early on in my BD making day but using KOH..I have batch of 'good' oil to didn't work..no separation...AH..but I know if I put too much KOH in I should get glop...a clue..well at 40G/ltr I still have separation..but I learn enough to fix my batch and go on..sure now I ask with that batch..soap level..conversion level(27/3 test)? only the soap test existed and I didn't have a clue..

or try 32g KOH/liter...your yield will be terrible..but does it work?

-dkenny



-dkenny

If the ph of the water after washing was low, that indicates acidity, right?

nevermind, dont have your # anymore, thought i did

Ok, see if anyone can answer this one. I can force seperation by adding water, otherwise the bio and glycerine stay in solution together. Once water is added, seperation is quick, and the top layer of bio looks like I would expect. Would too much methanol cause this? I havent 3/27 tested it. Tomorrow.

hooknline,

mathmatically I don't know, but I would suggest using a multiplier even less than before say .12 instead of .17... this is even lower than Biotom suggestion...but try this as a sample..

ph is a logarithmic scale..nonlinear..its like the Richter scale there's a big difference between a 6 and 7.

-dkenny

hookline: so it seems that the water is combining with the byproduct that is in suspension in the bio. I encounter this all the time after the second base stage, therefore go directly to rinse step and the byproduct seperates quickly. so whats keeping your's in suspention after fist base stage
-not enough KOH to complete the reaction or too much methanol ? in my mind, it's one of these too items. if I don't put enough KOH in the first base, the oil changes to a darker color, and does not seperate no matter how long I leave it, if I put a lite behind the sample, the oil has a redish color to it rather that the golden color we look for. so now, I can identify a batch that is a bit short on KOH. as far as methanol, I use less than most 20%, but thats what works for me. even at that 80/20 it is suficient the cause the byproduct to stay suspended in the second stage.
-It seems your oil is quite acidic, so, you would hve to neutralize this with a KOH water wash proir to processeing, or add even more KOH to the process to cancel this out. DON'T GIVE UP Tom