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This is what I did.

30 gal. WVO that titrated to 1.25

That came out to 1073g 90% KOH into 6.6 gal. methanol.

Pump mixed for 3 hours at 120F in my plastic cone reactor.

Good separation drained off at 48hours leaving 31 gals of BD.
Note-it was draining very brown glycerol and
I drained till nice color BD was coming out.

I cleaned with magnesol 2g/L but still hazy and shake test indicated lots of hazy water.

I cleaned same batch again with 4g/L of magnesol and still hazy BD after settling overnight. Shake test gives me slightly less haze in the water.

27/3 indicates full conversion.

This was my second batch ever. First batch done similarly but mist washed. I got lots of emulsion and had to scrap the whole batch.

What am I doing wrong?
 
Registered: 22 March 2006Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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My first guess since you're a beginner is that you're not totally clear of the glycerine yet, but it's hard to tell wihtout knowing about your processor. If you take a sample of what you think is good clean biodiesel, set it in a sealed jar, and wait a couple of hours, that can be a test of whether you know for sure that you're into the biodiesel-only layer. If some glycerine settles out of the jar within an hour or two, you're not separating glycerine fully (if the lid is off lots of samples of fuel will drop glycerine eventually, disregard this kind of result as it's due to methanol evaporating and releasing suspended glycerine).

You dont have to do this every time you drain glycerine, you just do it once or twice to help you learn what you're looking for in terms of the color in your drain hose, for instance.


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Location: Pittsboro, North Carolina | Registered: 07 March 2001Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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The point of telling you to make sure you've removed the glycerine is that the glycerine contains most of hte soap- so if you contaminate your batch with just a little bit of glycerine, it really throws the soap levels sky-high. It's the most common mistake people make, thinking they've drained all of it when they haven't yet, because there's an interface layer where your valve is going to drain both materials at once.


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Location: Pittsboro, North Carolina | Registered: 07 March 2001Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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How do I save this batch? Or am I wasting my time...and magnesol? Thank you Girl Mark.
 
Registered: 22 March 2006Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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well, washing will get you all the way there, then be more careful about it next time. I'm not sure how much Magnesol you'd need to treat with in order to do the same thing with Magnesol.

By the way, you didn't need to throw out your emulsified batch. It's easy to break emulsions if you use the method from www.biodieselcommunity.org .


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Location: Pittsboro, North Carolina | Registered: 07 March 2001Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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To make life simpler,a nd if you have the space of course, you can set up a seperate settling tank equipped with a StandPipe (just like a wash tank).Move the treacted fuel over immediately after the reaction is done and let settle at least overnight.Drain from the StandPipe first to get the biodiesel minus glycerine and then the floor drain later.
I use a purge valve on my system (see link in the sig) that purges out any settled glycerine that has gone down the StandPipe so that when I transfer over to the wash tank all I get is biodiesel, no glycerine.This allows me to be a little more "agressive" with washing that those who have some glyc mixed in.
An alternative is to set up a water heater as a reactor,but fliped upside down and have a nipple welded dead center of the concave bottom.Have a short bit of pipe sticking up inside the tank.This will act in the same manner as the StandPipe in a drum. Do a search for "Apple Turnover" to see and read more about that.


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Location: :-) Great White North eh ? | Registered: 10 December 2004Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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NEED MORE HELP
I have been trying to very gently mist wash. I have used about 40 gals. of water so far. The water is still milky AND I'm getting a layer of foamy stuff. I have drained some of the foam with the wash water each time I drain the water. Did I have this much soap or glycerin in my BD? What should I do? I have a foam sample sitting in a jar. Water is settling out,some BD on top, and a foamy layer in-between.
 
Registered: 22 March 2006Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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spyguy,

Leave the bio sitting on top of the water and foam. Walk away from it for a day. Then drain and wash again.
 
Location: The Deep South | Registered: 06 December 2004Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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"NEED MORE HELP"
That is all normal so far. You can help things by pouring in hot water and stirring then just leave it alone for awhile before more misting. I stir my wash with a canoe paddle, just a gentle mixing of the water and bd then let it settle. Don't be worried about that foam layer, always happens for me.

When the water starts to run clear and the mist water seperates well I grab some bd and do a shake and settle. If I am happy with the test I drain down so the stand pipe top is above the foam layer and pull off the bd. By the time I am ready to start washing the next batch the foam layer has turned into bd and I just pump in bd from the reactor (thru the water) and it all starts over.
 
Location: SF Bay Area | Registered: 02 September 2005Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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Follow-up to how it turned out. I continued to mist wash which created a 4 inch foam layer that seemed to appear no matter how gentle I washed. Water under the foam was clear so I let the batch sit for 24 hours. Time reduced the foam to 1/2 inch. I drained the water and the foam. Dried the BD and came out clear and nice looking. Shake test and separation A-OK-Thanks for the good coaching!
 
Registered: 22 March 2006Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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In the future, if you want to use magnesol, you're going to need to remove the excess methanol from the biodiesel before adding methanol. Once the methanol is gone, the leftover soap should drop to the bottom and/or foam up on top while circulating the biodiesel. Once the foaming has stopped, perform a soap titration to determine the amount of magnesol to use. Some people have gotten down to .5% by weight doing this. Ideally you should add magnesol when the biodiesel is hot and stir good for 15-20 minutes. Use a sock filter to filter out the magnesol. I personally use a centrifuge to get the last remnants of magnesol out once the sock filter becomes ineffective. Rick has centrifuges as b100supply.com.

good Luck!
 
Registered: 14 August 2006Reply With QuoteEdit or Delete MessageReport This Post
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