IS THERE ANY REASON THAT I CANT BUBBLE WASH FROM THE VERY START OF THE WASH CYCLE AS I HAVE READ THAT ALOT OF YOU DO A MIST WASH FIRST IS THERE ANY ADVANTAGE TO DOING A MIST WASH FIRST

Hi Stampy,

Mistwashing first makes it less likely that you'll get an emulsion, especially in cases where you got some glycerine into your wash tank. That's because glycerine contains a lot of soap- if you bubblewash a batch contaminated with a small amount of glycerine, that's like mixing up a huge amount of soap into your biodiesel and water.

However, if you mistwash 20 liters or so into the tank (205-liter drum-based tank I"m assuming), then the glycerine/soap residue tends to fall to the bottom of the tank with the water, and not get aggressively mixed into the biodiesel. You throw that water out of course, and use fresh water to bubblewash.

It can be avoided but it's safer to do a little mistwashing first.

by the way, it's generally considered rude by most people on the Internet to type in all-capital letters...

Mark

sorry about the capital letters had caps lock on for some reason.

So mist wash first

Hi!
I'm using a continuous bubble wash in the fuel not the water from the time I start the wash along with the Arizona mist setup at 20 minute intervals. It's worked well for me on the 129L batches I'm doing. I heat to 120. Usually 2 washes and an overnight continual bubble do the trick. Only thing I'm wondering is if this type of bubblewashing is conducive to polymerization as I have read here?

well i will have to do a mist wash first.

But i have always bubbled it from the start it seems to wash ok but i will try a mist wash first to see what the differance is

nothing wrong with it if it's working for you, though... if you're not plagued with emulsions then you're probably not getting that glycerine contamination problem that I mentioned.

Mark

Hi mark

Yes i did get it once when i first started but it works for me at the moment stil think that i will try a mist wash first

Stampy