Hello, my name is Salvador of Spain. I've been following the forum for a long time, sorry for my bad English. I have 3 lots and they all look the same to me as in the photo in the first wash. 15 Gallons, 20% Methanol and KOH 7gr + 1.2 (Titration) gr / L. I'm not sure that the oil is completely dry, I heat at 160 ° F, I let it sit for 24 hours and I take 1 gallon from below.
In the Spanish forums say that the color is wrong, I'm on the right track?Thank you

Biodiesel.jpg (46 Kb, 138 downloads)

The oil needs to be completely free of moisture. If it isn't the moisture robs the chemicals and you do not get a complete reaction. An incomplete reaction creates lot of emulsifiers such as mono- and di-glycerides. Then when you wash your BD they create an emulsion and the oil will not readily separate from the water. IE the water is entrained with oil, and the oil is entrained with water. This is what you may have here.

Hi Salvador, welcome to the forum.

The color of biodiesel can vary between nearly black to virtually colorless, depending on the type of oil being reacted and what was cooked in it.

It looks like your photo is of recently washed biodiesel that still contains some water sitting on top of a small amount of wash water containing soap.
This is a pretty normal look for biodiesel that is not yet dry.

Did the people who said the color is wrong explain why they think the color is wrong?

Hi Thanks for the answers Paulus and Tilly. The photo is of the third wash, is it correct what I indicate?

IMG_20180716_142829.jpg (26 Kb, 18 downloads)

Tilly, they tells me that when it looks like a chicken soup is wrong, but they do not tell me why.

It does not look like any chicken soup I have ever eaten!

It looks like wet biodiesel.
Try drying it and see what happens

Getting back to the idea that you may have an incomplete reaction.

If you have a complete reaction, at some point the wash water that forms the bottom layer should start to become clear.

When it doesn't, and is cloudy, that is because the di- and mono-glycerides that you formed are attracted to the water molecules due to polarity. This is how emulsifiers work.

And at some point you have to acknowledge that the cloudiness is due not just to soap but because part of your "biodiesel" is going out also with the wash water. The nett effect is that your biodiesel layer gets smaller.

Worth thinking about.

Try a wash with hot water.

If it is an incomplete reaction, dry the biodiesel, and treat it like a two stage reaction. I have not done this but it seems reasonable to me.

I've thought of something else.. Dry 10 milliliters of your product biodiesel, then add 90 milliliters of dry methanol and see if all the biodiesel dissolves, if it is entirely miscible. I think this is called the Warnquest test for reaction completion.

Hello, I have done more washing and I was still losing biodiesel as Paulus said. I have dried the biodiesel as Tilly told me and everything is perfect, as in the photo, thank you very much.

IMG_20180716_210455(1).jpg (45 Kb, 17 downloads)

quote:

Originally posted by Psicro:
Hello, I have done more washing and I was still losing biodiesel as Paulus said. I have dried the biodiesel as Tilly told me and everything is perfect, as in the photo, thank you very much.

Great work.

Did you try the 3/27 test?

you can read about it here:
biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/forum...1061471/m/8281092351


Rick