I am about to start my first batch in my new BP. What is the proper way to de-water? I picked up 125 gallons in the rain the other day so I know there's water in it. I want to do everything possible to insure a good result.

The owners manual gives you a very detailed explanation of dewatering. I just made my first batch this week and it was perfect! I filtered my oil using a Utah Biodiesel drum filter and then let it settle for several days. Then put it in the BioPro for 24 hours (60 gallons) with lid on and then for an additional 6 hours with the lid off and the stirrer on. Works great!

Trust the directions in your BioPro manual. Load 60 gals in the machine, turn on the heat for 24 hrs, drain 10gals off and leave heat on, turn mixer on for 6 - 8 hrs. Then start your actual process.I had the same issues to deal with on my all 4 of the batches I have made so far. Everything turned out as advertised.

I have not had any issues in 4 batches that the the manual did not address. Although I did call / email Graydon to make sure. And for the record. Graydon was kind enough to answer my questions without saying "read the manual" ( which I had already, but wanted confirmation).

So far, my BioPro 190 has performed as advertised and better. Thanks to Graydon for all his help.

I also have a slight variation to the dewatering steps in the manual that I use as well.

1) Add 55-60 gallons of "wet" oil
2) 6 hours manual heat & manual stir w/ lid off
3) 18 hours manual heat only w/ lid off
4) Come back & drain off water
5) Drain AT LEAST 1 gallon past when you "think" you've drained all the water off
6) Then proceed as normal.

Water's a tricky thing. It's extremely difficult to know when you have it all out of the oil just w/ the naked eye. Hence the "drain 1 gal past when you THINK you've got it all out". It's also why they have you do a full 60 gallons of oil & drain back down to 50.

Out of all the troubleshooting calls I get, I'd say about 90% of them can be directly attributable to water in the oil that wasn't removed all the way.

That water is a tricky sucker. It can screw up the most beautiful oil out there...

But yep, the method in the manual works equally as well too.

-Graydon

Graydon,
Do you do this to save time or have you found it to be more effective in drying the wvo?

We dewater our oil in 55 gallon drums with the old heat and settle technique. We then pull the oil out of a standpipe and into the machine. This allows us to keep the biopro cranking out batches of BD. We have found that this saves us the most time.
DD

quote:

Originally posted by Dandy Don:
We dewater our oil in 55 gallon drums with the old heat and settle technique. We then pull the oil out of a standpipe and into the machine. This allows us to keep the biopro cranking out batches of BD. We have found that this saves us the most time.
DD

We do this as well. We still go through the dry cycle in the BP. So we're not saving much time, but I feel better knowing that the oil is as dry as we can get it.

Well I just primed the water system and dumped in about 50 gallons of oil. I had to put more in to have something to drain off. However the other 5+ gallons or so did not pass the go/no go. Since its only a few gallons, and I will be draining off is this probably alright. After reading the manual it states that 90% of 5% FFA or above is usuaslly due to water. I did pick up the oil in the rain and it was from the bottom of a large 200 gallon tank. So I think its a combinantion of the crap on the bottom and water. Any thoughts???

Well i just got home and checked out my first batch. It looks like everything worked out just fine. My finished light was on and the product looks good with good color and texture. I will try the 27/3 test in the morning.

Getting back to my previous question. I have 130 gallons of oil that won't pass the go/no go. Do you think I will be able to do the heat/dry cycle and re-check for less water and a positive Go/no go. Has anyone had this situation before and been sucessful with this solution?

My suggestion is to blend it with oil with a low %FFA. I would titrate it and calculate the %FFA. This will tell you how much it misses by. You can then decide how to blend it.
DD

quote:

Has anyone had this situation before and been sucessful with this solution?

Not sure if this has been tried yet on that machine, but I'd look into doing the glycerine/byproduct pre-treatment on the oil.

Failing the go/nogo means high FFA. Learn to titrate so you know what you are dealing with.

Do the quantitative water test. The less water, the higher FFA the process can handle.

HTH,

What's a glycerine/byproduct pre-treatment on the oil?