I started my first bioD brew earlier yesterday. I had the two distinct layers. My oil was probably horrible, for my 1L of oil with 200mL of Methanol and 17g of lye at the end was very cloudy...so I have read is normal. Now, I tried washing my bio in a small Knotts jar, the "bioD" on top turned pretty much into a solid. I am guessing I made an error with the titration and added too much lye, even though 17g is what I came up with on 3 titrations. What's the thoughts of the experienced?

Try again with unused oil. I've never done it with REALLY bad oil, but you start running into problems with a titration above 5 or so.

If that's the only oil that's available you can use an acid-base method...but it's a bit more complicated. Start with virgin oil and use the Dr. Pepper (Pat. Pending) method...then move onto using "good" used oil...then try the "bad" used oil.

Good luck, Dan.

Were you using KOH? I do oil most of the time that titrates total of 15 with KOH without doing the acic base.

Forget about the 17 gram oil...too junky to start learning with.

Like S-Dan said, start with a 1 liter batch of brand new oil and use 200mL of methanol and the base amount of NaOH or KOH. This is the ammount to add when there are zero FFA (free fatty acids). I use 7.0 grams of KOH as a base, not sure what others are using for NaOH.

Did you do the titration correctly when you came up with 17 grams?

Keep trying, Hugh