I am a newbie. I made a test batch with some pretty good looking WVO and the results look good. Now I have made a second batch with a very dark WVO (soybean) from a chinese restaurant. Well! The biodiesel, prewash, is really dark. It is transparent, with a fluid layer of glycerine at the bottom of the bottle. Does the normal product always come out golden colored? This one is not even close. I titrated it with Tumeric as the indicator at 4.1. Then used a pH meter and got approximately a pH of 8.6.

Does this sound right? Oops should I say look right?

Thanks for the advice.

Dana

Hello penguy, congratulations on your successes

Colour of the biodiesel depends on many things and is not an indication of quality/conversion.

The titration is to 8.5
If you got 8.6 with turmeric I think that is excellent.

Thank you Tilly.

I have a good source for this oil.

Have all the parts now to put an Appleseed processor together. Wash tank too. Maybe have it up and running by the weekend. This is a great experiment.

I plan to burn the biodiesel in a TDI Jetta and a Dodge Cummins diesel.

Thank you for your expertise.

(I just looked at your location, India? I just bought a Listeroid 6/1 engine.)

Dana

HI Tilly
I got another question i am going to try koh. in your trition using koh you said to use 7 as a base is that ok for 90 percent pure koh or should it be higher if so is there a formula i can use to knw how much more i need as my koh is only 90 percent pure and do i make the trition liq the same way as with lye liquid
or do i use more koh in the trition liquid
i am pleased with the fuel ive have made so far ive have used it to heat a small building that i tinker in it has done well i find it jells round thirty deg so i moved my tank inside thanks to you and mark and all that have helped me to learn its great fun in using
koh is there anything different in the reaction that i should look for
CHEAPRIDE

Alright I made my test batch and washed it and now it is dry and filtered....and I have to say I am pretty please with myself and with the result!

I attached a picture!

S

Bio_dry.jpg (438 Kb, 73 downloads) Bio dry and filtered

Hello Cheapride
The 7g for the base must be adjusted for purity. If the KOH is 90% that would be a base of about 7.7g KOH.
I have never used KOH so can not advise about the reaction from personal experience.

Tilly

Thanks for the time taken in the Dr method !
Got a little frustrated when attempting to drain off the wash water and then suddenly I had a brain fart ! Why not use a sports resealable top you know the kind that you pull out to open and then push closed, well now I don't make a mess and it is so much easier to drain off the water !
May the LORD bless, Alotizzip

Hello alotizzip,

I am sure the lord will bless me in his own very special way.
"I will hand you over to ravaging men, artisans of destruction. You shall be fuel for the fire, your blood shall flow throughout the land. You shall not be remembered, for I, the LORD, have spoken. (Ezekiel 21:33-37 NAB)"

Good day
I;ve been using svo but thought I'd try an experiment with lye and ethanol (96% ethanol).
Took a 4 litre container, added 3 litres of wvo at about 25 deg. cel., added 1 litre of ethanol with 20 grammes of lye dissolved in it. Result - a fairly solid mass of wvo, as in you turn the container upside down and the air stays at the bottom. Any ideas?

Hi, I'm new to this process and tried the Dr P method to get an idea. Now I have a few questions. I tried to find answers in the forum but there is so much information that it's easy to get more confused than I already am.

So first I found that getting the correct bottle of HEET makes a big difference.
After I got the yellow bottle things went better but I'm not getting the amount of seperation that the instructions indicate that I should get. I haven't measured it but I can tell by loking that it's not 250ml.

The source of lye that I got is a can of Drano Crystals. I couldn't find plain lye. When I mixed it with the methanol, I used 1 tsp, it took a long time to get it crushed and even then not everything soaked up. Still it looked okay when I poured it in.

Separation started with in a few minutes after mixing and it was cool to see.
I don't know about the titration stuff yet. I don't have anything to do it with but will work on getting that together soon.

Here is what my first one looks like http://home.comcast.net/~vmiii/wsb/media/349243/site1051.JPG

My other question is what is KOH? I keep seeing it refered to but I guess that I have just missed what it is.

I really look forward to this adventure and want to learn as much as I can.

Hello BiggestDawg, welcome to the forum and congratulations on your success!

Drano is not 100% NaOH and it seems to vary between 40- 60% so perhaps 1.5 level Teaspoons would be in order.
The amount of glycerine being about the same as the methanol used is only a rough estimation.

KOH (Potasium hydroxide) can be used in place of NaOH. It apparently disolves quicker in methanol and the glycerine layer remains liquid instead of solidifying.

I am getting ready to do my first small batch and am gathering upo the supplies and have a quick question.... does the bottle have to be glass and if so where migght I find one good enough

Where can I find a current working link discribing the Dr. Pepper Viscosimeter?

Hello pickeledtoad
The reaction bottle does not need to be glass, PET works fine.

Hello makenamicro
Look Here.

Hi!

I just made my first "Dr Pepper" batch of BD, and I'm impressed! Thanks for the great instructions!

I have a small issue with my experiment though;
It says over at http://www.biodieselcommunity.org/makingasmallbatch/ : "Typically the glycerine layer is about the same or a bit more than the amount of methanol used." and my estimate is that I have half the amount (or less) of glycerine (glycerol?) compared to the amount of methoxide I put in.

My simple question is : What can this mean?

(
EDIT:

Some further facts that I think might be useful to find a source for the problem (as I have looked around elsewhere too for the solution)

The lye I used says 85%-100% NaOH (I use it successfully for soapmaking)

I used "half a teaspoon" of lye, which isn't very precise.. I "eyed" half a measurment of a teaspoon measure that said "1 Teaspoon (5ml)".

I can't say that I felt the mixing of the methoxide was "exothermic". I cound't feel a "significant" temeprature raise, not like the one I feel when mixing [the same] lye with water for soapmaking (But the soapmaking uses a significantly larger addition of lye).

)

Hello mastermute, congratulations on your successful batch of biodiesel

The "Glycerine layer" amount will vary. With new oil it will be less than with Waste oil. These measurements are only rough approximations.

I have not seen NaOH less than 99%. If you have 85% NaoH you will need to increase the base amount of NaOH from 5g to 5.9g.
If you use the same NaOH in the titration as you use in the reaction you do not need to adjust the titration amount.

The Teaspoon measurement is only there for poeple who do not have accurate weighing equipment.
Methoxide does not contain the same amount of NaOH as the water soap is made from and will not heat up as much.
Also for the small amount of methoxide you made, most of the heat would have been "used up" heating the container a few degrees.

Thanks a lot for that quick answer!

I used NVO so that might be the reason then...

I'll do a new batch tomorrow as I managed to make a soap/BD emulsion due to not reading the instructions for washing properly... That'll teach me to go to bed earlier!

Again, thank you for showing me the way to make BioDiesel! I hope more people discover how to make fuel from renewable sources.

I am trying to start making biodiesel. I have good used oil (titration = .1) but when I make liter batches, and then do a water test for quality, it always makes soap. I'm using 1 liter oil, 250 ml methanol with 6.1 grams KOH dissolved in it, shaking for 10minutes, letting settleat least 24 hours. Settles well, but the fule part is not crystal clear (can't read through it). iS it possible methanol is bad, does it go bad? I don't want to make larger batch until I can make a good liter batch. Not sure what to try next.

Hello bjornen11, welcome to the forum

The "Shake-um up" test is meaningless as a test for quality. It is just more crapola misinformation posted on the JTF misinformation site.

The base aount for KOH is 7 adjusted for purity, not 6.
Also, if you are doing the reaction at 50deg C you should re-mix several times over an hour for maximum conversion.

Hi Tilly. If the JTF "shake-em-up" test is garbage, than what is the proper test for quality?
I tried making two test batches, one with wvo and one with new soy oil. We used Muel Kick sodium grainuals and Heet (yellow). Tested the wvo and used 9.5 grams, 3.5 for the soy. The wvo made creamy mayo floaters and the soy made a thin milkshake. (shake-em-up test) I am not about to try and put this stuff in a motor if it does not pass some sort of test. Do you have a good test proceedure?? Thanks in advance.