I have made my first test batch of BD. My immediate results had me a bit confused (explained below). However, after about a week of settling, it does seem crystal clear. Since it is my first test batch I DO want to make sure everything worked fine and therefore want to re-process it.

Details:

I did a half Dr. Pepper 500ml of fresh Canola (rapeseed) oil

100ml of methanol (I know Dr. P suggests 125mL but this is a petroleum product and I want to perfect the process using as little of this stuff as possible)

2g of NaOH (due to fresh oil)

Result:

I shook in a 2L pop bottom vigorously for approx.1 minute and then for shorter periods over the next hour.

It immediately went milky yellow and cloudy. The separation took a lot longer to start then other posts led me to expect. However, after a day or two I noticed this cloudy layer now on top and an amber layer on the bottom. After a week the separtion continued. I put the sample in the sun for a few hours and it went totally clear. Was this OK to do?; and a reasonable amount of time to settle? What evapoated from the sample to improve its clarity?

This batch is now clear, but has a few tiny fibrous-like stands floating (translucent/whitish). This sample was unwashed. Any ideas?

I haven't performed any tests on the BD yet, other than visual, but I want to see if there is much in the way of unreacted oil etc in the batch. This is why I want to re-process.

Any ideas as to the proportions of ingredients for the re-test, based on my initial proportions?

I took some photos of this batch. Is there any way to attach them to this post for others to view?

Sorry for the long post and all the questions, but I wanted to make sure I included all pertinent info and asked the experts before I get too far along.

Thanks in advance.

P.S. I performed an identical test with aqueous catalyst and achieved similar results. I posted on another thread concerns about this batch of catalyst since I wasn't able to dissolve the required amount of NaOH. Since I didn't know the final concentartion of NaOH, I used twice the suggested amount. Should this cause major problems?

Snail,
Sounds as if it is working. Two questions.
1) At what temperature did you carry out the reaction ?
2) What is the aproximate percentage of glycerine to bio that you obtained ? It is usually around 15-20 % of the total after reaction. Also the glycerine tends to start falling out around 3-5 minutes into the process.
All in all it looks good for you.
congratulations.
regards
dva

was approx. 55 C. I heated the oil to around 60 C. By the time I got everything else ready to go and got the oil in the pop bottle, it had dropped a bit (approx 55). I did not continue to heat the oil after all ingredients were mixed. It cooled slowly over time, as I shook.

I think I got closer to 20% glycerin settling out (I haven't measured yet, but I will). When I decanted the BD into my flask it was 500mL. This was the original amount of oil that I added.

Snail
(budding BD freak)