ok hope i can explain this clearly.. my normal supplier of WVO went out of business so i had to find new ones.. wellthought i found some good ones they all say they only use veggy oil.. when i make a batch its always 40 gal batch.. heated it , titrated it at a 7 + 9 = 16 x 151=2416 right ? ok drained off the glyserin seemed like alot more than what it should be 8.8 gals of methonal = 8.8 gals of glyserin right ? ....ok well i started washing it with warm well water after about 15 minutes it had three layers in the tank dark on bottom ..them what i would say look like the wash water, kind of a milky tanish.. then the bio diesel on top.. i have already drained off about 10 gals of glyserin and still about another 4 gals of the dark layer in the tank.....not sure why i keep getting the different layers...ya think someone is useing shortening along with the veggie oil ?? thats what i am thinking but what do i know .. i will stop there . let me know what you guys think .. thanks for any help Trent

Dark layer? The only thing dark I've seen is UCO and Glycerine byproduct. Any chance it could be glycerine washing out with the water?
Sounds like it could be to me.

Are you using KOH or NaOH?
Either way, 7ml is a high titration that will result in more byproduct than lower titrating oil.
The amount of byproduct generated is not equal to the amount of methanol used. The byproduct layer contains alot of soap that is produced when the excess catalyst combines with FFA and bio. The higher the titration, the more glycerine byproduct layer that is created.
10 gallons certainly doesn't sound outrageous given the titration.

pump guy
-are you using base/base processing?
-the dark layer in the wash tank will be byproduct and some water. the next layer will be less viscous and will contain soap, byproduct and water.
-I often have that make up in the drainage from my static wash. I transfer the whole batch to the wash tank after the second base ( which for me is 1gr koh and 10ml methanol) because the byproduct from this base process stays in suspension
-with that much soap, you have to go carefull on the next wash, don't use too much water, too much water will for sure set the stage for a good emulsion. start the next wash with 2% water, and the following washes with a max of 5% water! I know this goes against most instructions here, but I have been following this wash process (borrowed from a commercial producer) for the last few batches and it works great, 1hr after mixing the water in you are ready to drain and start the next wash! Tom

Thanks for the reply guys.. I am using KOH.. i have only run in to this the last few batches..so it had me wondering. I always thought that the byproduct was the same as the amount of methanol.. quess i learn something new every day.
the dark layer does look like glycerine, just didn't think it could be.
base/base processing?.. not sure what that is.. but if its good.. hopefully i'm doing it..lol thanks again

pump guy
-base/base processing is two reactions, most use 80% of the methoxid for the fisrt base reaction, settle and drain the byproducut, then do a second base process using the remaining 20% of the methoxid. this helps to move the reaction further to completion. Tom

Tom

Nope don't do that..the closes i come to that it the acid estr..for the WVO that titrated really high..is there postes on heer about that ? i would like to read more on it. thanks