I've been having a little trouble with emulsions lately and breaking them with salt water.So the queation I have is: Why not start the wash with salt water? Would this prevent the emulsion? Is this a good idea?
Thanks Tom

Tom
-yes you could do that, Many people start the wash with vinigar at the rate of 7ml/ltr of wash water. also you can cut down on the emulsion problem by cutting back on the amount of water you use per wash,I use 2% for the first wash and 5% for each wash after that. you will require more washes, but they are easy and can be repeated every hour. Tom

Thanks for your help Tom. I have just started doing water washes. I had allways used my dry wash system but ended up with some soap in my fuel that caused quite a problem. So i am using a water wash then dry wash. Fuel has been great. Just got to get the hang of the water wash without emulsions. I'll try your suggestion on my next batch!!!
Tom

Soap emulsions are primarily caused by excessive glycerine getting into the wash cycle. This can happen using a "dry wash" system as well if the biodiesel is not properly demethed first. Both stem from the same source.

This is why I use a dedicated settling drum quipped with a standpipe and follow that up with a demething drum also equipped with a standpipe. The first allows for biodiesel to be drained off the top leaving the glycerine behind and the second allows for settling out of whatever residual glycerine was left in the fuel after demething it.

The only time I had any trouble with soaps is when I got switched from well to city water which was super softened, but since usig resin purification combined with the method above I have not had an issue with it. I final filter using a 2 micron CAT fuel filter.

Well I did the salt wash on the first wash and it worked fine. Had no trouble with emulsions. Was the clearest looking fuel made so far.