When filtering dried and rough-filtered wvo, the "5 micron" string-wound water filters clog with tallow and ? to the point of needing to be changed after passing about 25 gallons each. At a cost of $2, that's only 8-cents per gallon. If your oil is well settled, and has less tallow and junk, expect the filters to last longer. I have 5 of them ganged together on a common manifold, but they still don't quite let the Flojet pump run continuously. It cycles on and off at roughly 15-second intervals, moving perhaps a gallon per minute, or less.
When used for filtering BD, I have two of the string-wound filters ganged together, followed by a 2-micron Racor (220 series). I've used the same two filters for about a year now, so they've passed over 600 gallons without changing. I only added the Racor recently, so it's only passed perhaps 250 gallons. Last night it/they was showing signs of clogging, as I was transfering settled bd to the big above ground tank. The pickup was sucking glycerin off the bottom of the settling tank, which tends to clog the filters.

Johno, can you post a picture or two of your filtering system?

'be glad to. Here's a picture of the gang of 5 filters, used for wvo. The flojet pump is sort of hidden, but it's job is to maintain 45psi.

water_filter_bank.JPG (209 KB, 567 downloads) gang of 5 water filters

johno,

Do you heat the oil when filtering? If your not would heating help flow rate and what temp would be good?

johno -- I have found that if I run the water filters in series instead of paralell they last for 200-250 gallon of mid-summer (70-ish) temp wvo, no other heating. I run progressivly finer filter elements of 30-20-10-5 micron, this way the tallow gets spread over several filters instead of just the 5 micron.
The oil is first screened through 2 womens knee-high stockings, one inside the other, makes a cheap bag filter, (no idea what micron rating this is but it catches most of the visible tallow), then a shurflo pump reset to shut off at 80 pounds (screw the tiny setscrew on the tip "in" to increase setting) pushes it through the filters. It only starts to cycle after 100-150 gallon of oil has been filtred. The oil then goes into a 225 gallon tank and is polished continuously (several days anyway) through a 1 micron filter by another shurflo pump. this pump cycles, 5 sec on, 10-15 sec off. Need to seal this water filter with felt seals or it bypasses a lot of oil and the pump will run continuously.

My oil has a lot of tallow, I doubt it is any better than what you are using, it is used to fry fish and chicken.

I have been throwing away about 30% of my oil as tallow. I am adding a heated tank to the truck so I think I am going to start heating my oil enough to melt the tallow and filter it along with the oil. I will let it cool and seperate the oil and tallow, The tallow blend (80% tallow/20% kerosine or diesel) will go into my yet-to-be installed 100 gallon heated truck tank and be used for long range fuel. the oil that is liquid down to 30 deg f will be blended or converted to winter biodiesel. The filters should last a lot longer by heating the oil.

Some heat does help, but melted tallow will go through the filter if the temperature's too high. Surprisingly even at 100*F some of this "tallow" doesn't melt (so what's that make it?). Given the opportunity, 80degF seems to work best with this stuff. Pumping through a single filter, or more than one in series, is excruciatingly slow, even with (initially) warm oil. It would take a couple days to pump 25 gallons through, and got very, very slow at the end. That was my inspiration for ganging the filters in parallel. The gang of 5 usually lasts a total of about 3 barrels/150 gallons
Tim: we must have similar oil sources. Start with heavily hydrogenated soy fryer grease, cook bacon, beef, frozen fish and lots of frozen chicken in it (all breaded of course), plus french fries and the occasional onion rings, then change it every few days (titrations rarely exceed 4). I've recently noticed that two of my three sources seem to be useing less hydrogenated oil, possibly due to public health concerns. It's liquid at 65*F, unlike previous years, but the one that used to do the friday fish fry in Canola no longer uses it.
For filtering my BD, I have two parallel "5-micron" water filters, followed by a 2-micron Racor. A Flojet pump sucks the BD from the big tank on demand.
Let me know if the attached picture is too big.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: johno,

flojet_water_filters_and_racor.JPG (41 KB, 284 downloads) new picture

Hey, I want to hear more talk about the magnesium silicate. Let's focus here, people!

(Actually, the filter set-up is pretty slick - may have to try that. Thanks for posting the photos, Jonho).

Any more magnesium silicate tests, Nuculer? Anyone? Anyone? Buhler? Anyone?

And does anyone else have any thoughts about how to ensure proper/complete filtration after using magnesium silicate? Pitfalls?

An aside: It seems to me that there've been two homebrew developments lately that haven't received the attention or enthusiasm on the list that one (and by "one" I mean "me") might expect.

To wit:

1) The recently discovered(?) ability to break stubborn emulsions simply by adding a relatively small amount of glycerine byproduct. I've tried it. Works. This is a good trick to know.

2) This whole business of waterless washing. This could significantly simplify biodiesel production for slow-to-learn people like myself. It would seem to have the potential to reduce not only muss, but also fuss.

An aside to the above aside:
I'm starting to crank out some good quality fuel now and it's just a pile of fun in addition to saving money, being a good enviro-geopolitical thing, etc. etc.

Thanks to so many of you for posting your good ideas, suggestions, failures, successes and encouragement on this list. We beginners truly appreciate it.

Cheers,
Eric

Well I'm a real newbie but I have learned a lot about magnesium silicate. I have discovered several CHEAP alternative MS suppliers. And I mean CHEAP. However the overarching issue for me is filtration. I am about to start producing on a 80 gallon appleseed so I plan to test various filtering systems using pumps. But for now I am using gravity which only tells me so much. I would like to hear what others have done on their larger scale set ups. Has anyone tried putting the MS in the WVO? That would seem to lower the amount of ethenol required. That's my next test. Anyone? Anyone? The silence does seem deafening to me.

I was under the impression that the original filtering application for synthetic MS ("Magnesol") was restauraunt fryer grease (aka WVO, once we get it), to help it last longer between changes.

johno

Could you post a pic of the racor and flowjet so the are more visable.
Thanks
Brad

As I reported, I had what appears to be good results using 2% Magnesol. Since then I have tried Nytal 400 and have had bad results due to inability to clarify the BD. I have filtered the BD with 2% Nytal 400 throgh a 1 micron filter bag with and without diatomacious earth. The BD remains cloudy (and no amout of heat/bubbling will clear it. Has anyone else done testing on alternative (cheaper) forms of Magnesium Silicate?

I switched from Magnesium silicate (for the time being) and conducted tests using silica gel (cat litter) on BD made from virgin peanut oil (3.5 grams lye and 220 ml methanol). Eventually I found that as little as 1/16th of an oz. completely absorbed the impurities in the BD. Meaning that the first wash was sparkling clear just like with 2% Mangnesol. THEN I tried the litter on BD made from WVO which titrated at +2 g/l of lye. It did not work. The first wash was very white and cloudy. Note: When I added the silica gel to the BD made with virgin oil the pieces of silica emitted fine bubbles like it was chemically reacting with the BD. When I added the silica to the BD made with WVO they emitted only a few weak bubbles. Finally, I took the "used" silica pieces from the successful virgin oil test and put them in a bottle with warm water, and shook it. The result was a lot of soapy water comming back out of the silica gel. My question is for people that use the 2 stage method which converts FFAs to BD (and H2O) using sulferc acid and meth, would at that point using silica gel not absorb other "stuff" that creates soap in wash water? Is that logical?

NUCULER
My thoughts, for what they are worth:
Measure Acid Value of WVO.
Process high FFA WVO w/ H2SO4 & MeOH.
Decant.
Titrate.
Either repeat acid esterification or proceed to base transesterification.
When acid value of WVO is equal to acid value of VVO, transesterify w/ KOH.
Decant BD.
Flash off methanol.
Mix well w/ 1-2% Magnasol.
Filter.
Ship the Magnasol filtrate to neutral to give to Tilly to sell to Australian stockmen.
Wash a 1 liter sample of your BD.
If your rinse water looks like ours, forget about water wash...For ever... and ever.. Amen.
Water is a precious resource.
Thank you for your dogged recognition of the importance of the role of Magnesium Silicate in the issue of waterless wash and soap removal of BD.
For the record, I have no vested interest in Magnasol, nor The Dallas Group.
Mike Lasche brought it to my attention.

Diff
Post Script:
There has been some mention here of the "high cost" of Magnasol.
If one ascribes any value at all to one's time, then the few cents that magnasol costs per gallon, saves one thousands of dollars a year.
If one ascribes any value to fresh water, the savings to current and future generations is incalculable

Diff: How would I flash off the meth? Also, I found a couple of alternative MS to Magnesol that are much cheaper. I haven't tried these two products yet, but when I do I'll report. I agree with Diff, using MS is amazing and exiting.

Now, about the silica gel, it worked so well sucking up the soap-making stuff from BD made from VVO (peanut oil) that I wonder why the industrial producers don't use it. Anyone?

Taz, et al: I've updated my posting of the 19th, above, with a new photo.

Disposal of contaminated silica gel could be expensive. OTOH, the Kitty litter around here is clay, not silica gel.

Now back to our regular programming....

This message has been edited. Last edited by: johno,

we are producing biodiesel from jatropha oil
we are obtaining glycerol as a biproduct
we nuetralise it with sulphuric acid and we are getting soap like cake during the nuetralisation so i want to know how to separate this cake from glycerine
whether i can use super centrifuge for that purpose i have heard that some users are using this but i don't know abot it so can you give me some idea

When you acidify the lower layer from the biodiesel reaction you should get three products, an oil layer on top which will be a mixture of free fatty acids and methyl esters, a glycerine layer in the middle and at the bottom a whitish powder which is the salt sodium sulphate if you used caustic soda in the reaction. The salt may be very slow to settle. Is that what you are seeing?

Initially I had what appeared to be great success in my experiments using Magnesol and other forms of magnesium silicate to "dry wash" BD. However, recently I began trying to duplicate these tests and have been failing miserably. As chronicled above I initially used virgin peanut oil as the oil stock, then moved on to WVO. In those experiments I was able to dry wash the BD with as little as 1/16 of an ounce per gallon of BD. However, in the past three days, each time I add the Magnesol and proceed as usual to agitate and heat the mixture, the end result produces soap in the water that I add to test for un-neutralized soap. In other words the water is soapy as if I had not used Magnesol. I'm going to keep trying but I am at a loss. Does anyone have similar experiences?

5{m perplexed by your post. I have not had your experience and much of the wvo we use to make BD might be deemed "unusable".
Are you storing the MS in a dry environment?
Are your operating temperatures the same as your earlier experiments?
Are you using 2% by weight of MS to BD?
Diff