I had just finished my last bubble wash and thought everything was going great. Plan was to dry this weekend.

I took a small jar sample to perform test wash, added what I thought was distilled water from my water jug (that I labeled water) and poured it into the sample. Without even agitating, it immediately turned into one jar of emulsion. At least that what it looked like.

Now, i'm thinking that this may have been my caustic titration solution. If so, would that have caused the immediate emulsion??? I added some vinegar but no change.

I took another sample and added water gentely from a hose, and did not have the same effect. It actually separated almost immediately. Thought for a minute my whole batch of bio was bad....

Any ideas on the emulsified sample? When you add caustic water to BIO, will it cause this emulstion?

IROKCJ5

This message has been edited. Last edited by: irokcj5,

That's interesting. I wouldn't think that a caustic titration solution would cause it to emulsify any more than just plain water. One of the remedies to an emulsion is adding (caustic) glycerine byproduct to the BD.

You could make another titration solution using fresh distilled water and try it again.

Let's say you wanted to make soap on purpose. Here's what the basic reaction looks like:

(oil or grease) + Lye + water = Soap

So yeah, that sounds like exactly what you did.

Good thing it was a sample and not 50 gallons.

The interesting question is how a small amount of caustic caused such an immediate emulsion.

Finest regards,

troy

Thanks...Troy, I did not add to oil or grease, I added it to my sample of biodiesel... hopefully it's biodiesel It did pass the 27/3 test. And I when I added water from hose, it separated fast with clear water and no soap line. So I think the batch is ok.

I have some samples of other BIO batches. I'm going to try the same thing with them.

quote:

Originally posted by irokcj5:
Thanks...Troy, I did not add to oil or grease, I added it to my sample of biodiesel...

Biodiesel is still oil. I agree with the analysis above, though I'm surprised it went that bad that fast. Keep us posted on what you figure out with further experimentation.

Cheers, John

This message has been edited. Last edited by: dukegrad98,

Tried it with other BD I made months ago and it did the same thing. While I have the bottle marked H2O, I think it was left over caustic or acid solution I used to make up my soap titration material.

At least I know it's not the current batch being bad.

My bet would be on the acid. Finished biodiesel would not have a hard reaction to a little water and caustic, however sulfuric acid ... ?

It definitely was not H2SO4... It would be HCL, used to make my 0.01N soap testing solution.

Hope you get it sorted out. And yes, what John said, biodiesel IS oil. Bio + caustic + water = soap.

Good luck,

troy