Hi all,
So I loaded up my Appleseed with about 90 liters of oil. I realized that I forgot to test for water. I did a hot pan test and found that it did indeed contain water. I had it in a settling barrel that sat for a couple of weeks. I usually get pretty good oil handed over to me in the carboys by the restaurants. I guess I took for granted the fact that I've never had this problem before.

What can I do now? Its in a 55 gallon watter heater with a single 240v element. Can I use this to heat it up? If so, to what temp. and for how long? Do I cycle it with the pump or standing still?

Any other info would be appreciated.

One thing to add, I have been reading other posts and many suggest heating and settling. The thing is, I don't think its at the point where it will seperate. It seems to be susended water. I was thinking of heating it as it circulated and that it would evaporate out the vent. Will this work at what temp?

Might be better to circulate some glycerin in there. Do a search on the glycerin pre treatment it will also remove good bit of water.

Trying to dry oil inside of an appleseed is a difficult thing indeed! I messed around with it when I was just getting started. I found that it was much, much easier to heat the oil up (in the appleseed if needs be) then pump it into an open top drum and circulate from the bottom to the top with a fan blowing over the top. There are several things you can do that increase the surface area of the oil in contact with the air, such as directing the oil coming from the outlet onto the side of the drum as it runs down, or you can "spray" the oil through a shower head. I would not recommend this method. Very messy.

It is possible to dewater inside a closed vessel, but it will take more work and engineering than in an open vessel.

Hmm, makes sense. I have a open top steel barrel, I'm gonna do that. How much circulation time do you think it needs?

Try the heated settling first. It usually works fine. Heat it up to the reactin temperature and let it sit, insulated, for 24 hours. At that point, if there's still too much water you can try glycerine pretreatment as everything's still nice and hot and that seems to help make the glycerine separate more completely.

Do you circulate it while heating it then let it settle out or do you heat it while standing still?

OK, the heat is totally optional for the glycerine pretreatment. What it does is make the glycerine and the oil less thick (viscous) so that the glycerine is more likely to settle out of the oil, faster, and more completely. You don't really have to do any heating for that process.

Also, be careful when you drain out glycerine after the pretreatment - IF you've heated- it's going to contain some methanol, so draining out hot glycerine/methanol can put some methanol vapor into the air and poison you. There are various safer ways of draining it into a sealed container with a separate vent that leads any vapors away from you. The easiest container is a two-bung 15 gallon drum with a vent directing those vapors away.

Well, seeing as I have no glycerine at the moment, I guess that way is out of the question. I think I am down to:

1. Heat in Appleseed and let settle. I will put in more oil than needed so I can drain out the extra and take whatever wate is in it hopefully, or

2. Heat and transfer it to an open container and circulate it their.

Who knows I may have to do the first AND the second.