I made my first 20 gallon batch the other day and decided to test out my centrifuge filter and magnesol setup.

I drained off about 3 gallons of glycerine and figured that would be good enough. I didn't realize the shape of the water heater bottom was holding back about a gallon. I moved the BD over to the wash tank, tested for soap (2500ppm), added my magnesol and started to filter.

I noticed right away that when I went to clean the spinner, I had the sand like magnesol in the bowl plus a very thick maple syrup stuff (the glycerine). I continued to filter most of the magensol and syrup out, soap test to 1500ppm and moved everything back to the water heater.

I let it settle overnight and took a 1 gallon sample off of the bottom of the water heater. No glycerine.

So if I am filtering out the "heavy" part of the glycerine (making syrup), where is the rest of it and will it cost me problems in using the fuel??

sean

is this your first post on this topic, or is this a post describing the results of a previous topic.

If its a previous topic would you provide a link to it?

First post on this topic.

Do you have a link to your centrifugal filter?

Also, your soap ppm is still really high. Why is it so high after treating with magnesol?

How long did you let the magnesol circulate? How long did you let the magnesol settle out?
Did you distill the remaining methanol off of your "glycerine free" fuel, prior to adding the magnesol?

It sounds like you just drained off your glycerine, added the magnesol and started pumping it through your filter... is this correct?

Could you provide more details on exactly what you did and what your results were? I would hate to start commenting while still feeling like I don't know all of the relevant facts.

The filter is a SpinnerII Model 60.

I demethed the fuel (which still have the gallon of glycerine) by heating to 160 degrees while recirculating in the water heater. I then moved the BD over to the wash tank, add the mag, recirculated, and began filtering. That is when I noticed the syrup and realized I should have more glycernine drainoff. Opps.

I decided to add more Magnesol and my final soap count was 150ppm (ended up adding 3lbs of magensol for 20 gallons of BD ). So I think the magnesol removed the remaining glycerin soaps from the fuel and everything looks pretty good with the fuel.

The car runs great and I think everything is fine, but I was confused with the syrup. It looked like very think glycerine. So if I demethed the BD + glycerin, spun out the heavy part of the gycerine with the Mag and filter, would there be anything left in the fuel from the liquid part of the gylercine??

sean

Sean,

The only way to really tell, is to give you centrifugal filter a good cleaning (with a solvent), followed by a good rinse. Let it dry, and then run your "finished" fuel back through it. If you get more "gook", then no, its not done, if its just as clean as it was before reprocessing it, then ya, its probably good.

Did you use a finishing filter (i.e. 1 or 5 microns)? Centrifugal filters are generally meant to be used in conjunction with a standard filter (usually in series).

Ya, you definately need more residence time for both settling your glycerine out, and allowing the magnesol to "do its thing".

How much did that filter assembly cost you and where did you get it?

As it was my first "large" batch, I did not set up a final filter yet. I did not know what kind of filter I wanted to use for a final filter before the tank.

The last cleaning of the centrifuge gave me a thin skim of gook after running for over an hour.

I have updated my plans some to help prevent the glycerine problem by using a standoff pipe tank for the settling.

I looked on Ebay for 2 months straight. One popped up, gave the guy a call, and bought it. Cost me about $175. It does work very nice. The clear water pump struggles a little with it since the inlet is 1/2. I think it is only putting out about 35-40psi, but it still runs the filter ok. I may upgrade the pump if it dies. I know it will do better if more oil pressure is applied.

How long are you recirculating the mag before filtering? I only gave it about 1/2 hour before I started filtering. But I ran the filter for about 6 hours to clean the oil. Mixing the tank back up with a paint mixer between filter cleanings.

I think people are mixing it up and giving it up to 24 hours to settle on its own.

If you have a paint mixer, I'd let it mix for 2 to 3 hours before letting it settle for a day.

That way the magnesol can do its business, and then gravity can do most of the work for you. A standpipe design will work very nicely for this because most of your magnesol will fall to the bottom of the stand pipe. After that, take suction above your standpipe, through your pump, through your centrifugal filter, and then through the finishing filter. Then sample for your soap again.

You'll want to let your glycerine settle ontop of your standpipe for about a day as well.

This will save you quite a bit of magnesol, and your finished product will be alot nicer.

I don't believe the centrifuge filter filters 100% of the liquid. I have fluid coming out of the filter before it is even spinning. So I think I will need to recirculate through the filter several times to remove all of the magnesol. I will give the mag more time to work, let it rest over night and begin the filter process in the morning.

i agree, you may have to circulate it through the centrifugal filter a couple of times, but make sure you keep moving your filtered fluid to cleaner and cleaner tanks - you don't want to recontaminate what you've just filtered.