I'm a synthetic chemist and although I've had no experience in making biodiesel, I thought you may be interested in a drying technique commonly used by chemists. If you take a slightly wet organic (oil) solution and do a wash with brine (saturated salt solution in water) you can remove a large proportion of the water in the oil. Just wondering if anyone had tried this?

Yes! there's a whole discussion on it at biodieselnow:

http://forums.biodieselnow.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8851&SearchTerms=salt

I have a pretty strong belief that salt carries over in partially-washed biodiesel (based on experiments I did described in that thread), but perhaps it'd work well for oil?

Mark

I"m not sure the correct thread to postt his on, but I have the classic appleseed processor with the standpipe wash tank.

Can the biodiesel be dried in the washtank drum? Or do I need another drum separately to do this?

ttt

quote:

Originally posted by JoeH:
I'm a synthetic chemist and although I've had no experience in making biodiesel, I thought you may be interested in a drying technique commonly used by chemists. If you take a slightly wet organic (oil) solution and do a wash with brine (saturated salt solution in water) you can remove a large proportion of the water in the oil. Just wondering if anyone had tried this?

Joeh, any salt left in the biodiesel would be bad news for the engine and pump. Its better to pass the biodiesel thru insoluble drying agents like calcium sulphate.

quote:

Originally posted by Dana Shields:
I"m not sure the correct thread to postt his on, but I have the classic appleseed processor with the standpipe wash tank.

Can the biodiesel be dried in the washtank drum? Or do I need another drum separately to do this?

I am interested in this question too... Does anyone have feedback for Dana??

Cheers.

I wound up building a second one, identical to the wash tank. Then I got another pump for circulation--the same one used for the processor--with the hopes that I could continuously circulate the stuff through a filter. Also use another aquarium air stone to dry the bio (same as the washtank sans the water).

Then use the pump to push it into yet another storage drum.

I've found that many biodiesel woes can be appeased by adding another barrel to the apparatus!

I'm working on a 275gal IBC tote for WVO... you can never have enough WVO laying around!

quote:

Originally posted by Dana Shields:
I"m not sure the correct thread to postt his on, but I have the classic appleseed processor with the standpipe wash tank.

Can the biodiesel be dried in the washtank drum? Or do I need another drum separately to do this?

I dry my biodiesel in the wash tank. There are several factors that affect drying including: Surface area, heat, and air movement across the surface. I don't add heat, but I use a Garbage Freight pump and spray it up agains the side of the wash tank. It kind of swirls around the side, which provides some good surface area. Then I have a 6" fan that blows air down into the tank...I have dry biodiesel overnight. If you're in a humid climate, it may take more time.

It can also get messy if your fan is too strong or your spray is in the wrong direction...you'll get a biodiesel mist all over the place!

Dan.

What about Acusorb beads for the drying process only. I want to try mist washing, but I would like to decrease my settling time. I have a water heater element in the bottom of my wash tank, but it seems like too much heat immersed in the fuel. I'm worried about what it's doing as the fuel hits the element.

I'd like to just do my wash, settle for 24 hours max and run the fuel through some deseccant and then my filters. Any thoughts?

I dry the biodiesel in my finish 55 gallon drums. I put on heater straps that I also use to heat the WVO. Then I put an airstone connected to a simple aquarium pump at the bottom of the barrel and in just a few hours I have very clear fuel.