When I am mist washing, I always seem to get very cloudy bio. First, second third, fourth, etc. washes. I get a good separation between water and bio, but can't seem to get rid of the white cloudiness. I don't think this is an emulsion. An emulsion would be when all or most of the water is incorporated into the bio, wouldn't it? So I am assuming that it is just a lot of suspended soap. I mist wash 125 gallons at a rate of 1 qt. per minute for 1 hour then let sit for 1 hour then repeat then repeat again. Drain water. Then do mist set rinse set rinse set drain again. still bio is very cloudy with white stuff (soap?). How do I get rid of this stuff and more importantly, how do I avoid it?

lew
-I think you will find it is suspended water! How long do you let it settle? I have a batch in the wash tank that has been sitting for two days, the sight tube is clear biodiesel. I don't normally let it sit that long, but have been caught up in a bathroom reno Tom

Are you applying heat? Mine is like that the first few mist washes until I heat it to 110F-140F. Once it darkens I switch on the bubbler, a couple hours-overnight. If you aren't heating, then what you are seeing sounds normal.

Nothing is wrong, at 15 gallons an hour it is going to take awhile to wash 125 gallons. You are going to end up putting at least 100 gallons of water thru it before it is washed. One thing was not clear to me, you mentioned white stuff in the fuel, are you seeing floating stuff?

Let me explain the process a little better. I have my mist head hooked up to a timer so that it mists for 1 hour then sets for an hour without misting then mists again for an hour then shuts off until reset. The time between resets is at least 10 hours if not overnight. Then I drain water and do the process again. I have done this 3 times and still white cloudy bio. I do not use heat. I would like to try it, but can I heat it without pumping? If so, any suggestions? I wash in a plastic cone bottom tank.

I was thinking about switching from the qt. per nozzle to a larger sized nozzle (perhaps .5 gallon nozzle) after the second wash. Do you think this would help, or create more problems?

Raften

No, I am not seeing floating stuff. I have in the past, but I think this was because my misting head was too close the surface of the bio and made a soapy froth on top making floating chunks. Does this sound like a rational thought? Or do you have another explanation?

if you are left with white stuff after washing then it may well be be sterol glucosides.
http://www.biodieselmagazine.c....jsp?article_id=1566
http://www.biodieselmagazine.c...le_id=1179&q=&page=1

lre
-can you post a picture, that my help. Tom

lew,
I just think you haven't washed enough, 125 gallons requires a lot of water to wash it. If you have a way to heat the water that would help. Also if you can't heat the water you can drop a 'death trap heater' in before washing to get the batch hot.

If your bio looks like orange juice mixed with milk its probably just "wet" try bubble drying it see if it clears. I bubble dry 40 gal for 24 hrs with a fan blowing over the top of the drum.

I think I may have found my problem. I was getting "chunks" of white stuff on top that I think were soap and the bio was cloudy with some chunks floating around in it. While watching the mist head I noticed that the water was impacting the surface of the bio pretty hard when the tank was getting near full. I think this was causing an emulsion on the first few runs of water when there was still methanol in solution. Subsequent washes did not have this efffect, but the chunks were a pain to get rid of. I have since made a greater distance between the mist head and the surface of the bio. I hope this will work.

What is a death trap heater?