I am just curious how many people out there are using their bio unwashed. I know there are going to be plenty of people saying all the bad things that can happen, but I know a few people locally that are not washing at all, they are doing fine. They also do not titrate and just use a base of 6.25 sodium Hydroxide. I tried not washing and felt the car was harder to start and had less power.

I can understand why people don't want to wash but the titration is so easy I see no valid excuse to skip that very important step.

Ken

I tried to run one batch of unwashed fuel thru my VW TDI it did not like it at all - very very hard to start. I won't make that mistake again. It may be my feedstock, but I let some unwashed fuel sit in a jar for a few days and it had a gel on top of it - soap I think.

If you have time to settle you can get away without washing,a settling time of a month might work ok, but then again it might not, unwashed bio is a lot like Russian roulette.

not washing means glop in your tank and the eventual clogging of your filter(s)

quote:

Originally posted by Obie:
I am just curious how many people out there are using their bio unwashed. I know there are going to be plenty of people saying all the bad things that can happen, but I know a few people locally that are not washing at all, they are doing fine. They also do not titrate and just use a base of 6.25 sodium Hydroxide. I tried not washing and felt the car was harder to start and had less power.

I'm sorry, but if you shortcut your titration and use only 6.25 grams of lye, you are asking for seriously mal-converted fuel. In fact, with some oil you won't even get a separation.

If you don't want to run washed fuel, you definitely need to make sure you get out the methanol - that may cause the starting issues. I tried it once in my Mercedes, I still had methanol in it, and the idle quality was terrible.

i have been running unwashed bio for a year now no problems. i let it sit in a drum and settle for a couple of days. 06'kubota tractor 280hrs. 03'dodge 25,000 miles

I run unwashed biodiesel; but I remove the methanol, let it settle for a couple of weeks. Then I filter it a couple of times and take a sample add a little water to see if the soap has dropped out. If it doesn't pass the clear water test, it settles longer.

Hi OBIE,
6.25g NaOH/liter?
Must be some pretty good oil if it actually converts. My oil titrates around 14-20 KOH and requires an acid/ base conversion to split and pass the 3/27 test. Adding 10g KOH/liter only gives me oil, methanol, and lye. That's certainly not good for an injection system.
Take your time, titrate, and make small batches to start out. It could be an eye opener (especially with crummy oil). Don't let this discourage you. Just my $.02

As I recall

6.25g NaOH was what mike Pelly's formula on JTF recommends

I have seen what comes out of the wash tank. I don't want that near either of my TDI motors, any of my motors for that matter.

quote:

Originally posted by trtmntdude:
not washing means glop in your tank and the eventual clogging of your filter(s)

I've made and run unwashed bio through 2 Mercedes, Ford F250, Back hoe ,tractor and rough terrain crane, over 1300 gals. and never plugged a filter or had any trouble. I use the 5% glycerin prewash method, dry completely , then run through a 10 micron , then a 5 micron filter. You will have more problems with water in the bio or using unfiltered bio. you can see in the attached picture the difference in soap from no prewash as compared to the prewash method.
I'll need to reduce the size of my pics, but the bottom line is that the prewash method leaves up 75% less soap in the finished bio. I've never had a problem. Just my 2 cents.
wnybiodieselcoop@verizon.net

quote:

Originally posted by wnybiocoop:
...the bottom line is that the prewash method leaves up 75% less soap in the finished bio.

What is the ppm soap level in your finished biodiesel?

Ken

Unwashed doesn't mean unrefined or uncleaned fuel. The byproducts are removed by means other than water washing. I've been running unwashed for several years. Without going into specific details, most of the "unwashed" processes remove the methanol and the undesirable byproducts settle out or can be filtered out. As long as methanol is left in the liquid, there will be dissolved undesirable soaps that will clog a filter if/when the methanol finally evaporates, such as happens in a vehicle fuel tank.
Cheers,
JohnO

Different motors are more or less tolerant of the nasties left in biodiesel. My TDI ONLY gets fuel that passes a PhLip test. My 7.3L Ford... well it can take just about anything. I'll give it fuel that passes a clarity test but not PhLip.