I had an idea for improving the safety of Grant's inline heater assm. If you inserted a T in the heater, then clamped a piece of SS foil or very thin sheetmetal between two flanges, you could vent a potential explosion to the outside, rather than have something burst. Any thoughts?



heater_illus_copy.jpg (39 Kb, 162 downloads) heater

Instead of the metal foil why not just use a standard pressure relief valve?
I don't think you will be able to make a reliable system that can vent an "explosion" without some serious engineering and a huge pipe/blast route!
The small capillary tube you see in GL's design is to prevent a rupture, I just used a 30 PSI relief valve like one of THESE.
Jon

Hi. Most pressure relief valves flow very limited amounts with alot of restriction. If you used say, a 2" pipe for your heater pipe, and used a 2" vent, the relatively small volume of vapors in the pipe might be enough to rupture the diaphram, but with a 2" vent pipe, I very much doubt the pipe would be affected. If you had oil in the feed and return lines, I think an explosion in the heater would be pretty well isolated from the reactor itself, which as Martha would say, is a good thing.
Bryan

Hi Bryan,
I would suggest that there is no concern of an explosion during heater operation unless the reactor is empty or there is an airspace around the heater. Oxygen is required to have an explosion so if the heater is submerged the risk of explosion is eliminated. That being said any explosion in the heater pipe would instantly be transferred through the pipe work to the reactor full of fumes... BOOM!
The reason for the pressure relief on my heater is strictly to vent fluids in case the pipe plugs and the oil stops flowing past the heater creating pressure. I also have a flow switch that prevents the heater from coming on unless fluid is exiting the heater...
Jon

On further reflection, I think I will plumb the burst disc on the top of the reaction tank. I intend to incorporate several other safety mechanisms, but if the worst happens, the vent pipe should prevent a tank rupture, I think.
I picked up a disc on ebay for $20.
Bryan

Interesting Bryan.
How big (diameter) of a vent are going to build?
What kind of disc did you get?
Jon

Here's the spec's on the one I bought...

BS&B Rupture Disc 2" Model RD01040C
Type JRS Material 316
85psig at 72F

The ebay item number was 110301200988 if you want to see a photo of the unit.

My thoughts right now are to put a 2" T at the top of my reactor tank, with the rupture disc at the top of the T, the foam trap to the side. I think I will put a 2" to 3" adapter (black pipe) after the rupture disc, then convert to sched 40 3" PVC to vent the flames and boiling oil thru the roof and in a relatively safe direction...

Bryan

quote:

Hydrochloric acid is pretty much water anyway.Saturated with hydrogen chloride gas. That is why 34% is very concentrated HCL not dilute HCL.

Hi, I am a complete newbie. Have read this thread to page 15 and much of the acid/base process thread. Researching the chemicals used as I go. the MSDS for HCL says: However for constituent Hydrogen chloride:
Acute Oral LD 50 (ingestion) (rat) >900mg/kg
Acute Inhalation LC 50 (rat) 3124 ppm/1hr
Inhalation lowest LETHAL concentration (human) = 1300 ppm/30
min and 3000 ppm/5 min

Why are you playing with this HCL in a domestic environment.

The acid/base thread makes the point that the acid process is slow and will be stopped in its tracks with water. 50% h2so4 (battery acid) is too weak to do the acid/base process so I presume battery acid will not cause reverse actions on your completed single base process. H2so4 and water should separate at the bottom of your reactor immediately after you newtralise and stop pumping. Dain it off and recover the methanol. Drain the by product raise the temp and dry the BD. Is there any validity in this concept?

Add 100ml HCL or h2so4 to 100L very slowly (20 min). This sounds like a major manual headache. If dilute h2so4 will do the job it can be added to the push-pull processor just like methoxide.

This thread suggests variations in mix throughout the reactor.
If this is true how does one get an accurate titration. Take 1ml out of 100L and titrate. Maybe this is a major cause of the unexplained errors described on the forum.

I am impressed with the GL Push-Pull processor. Am expecting bad oil to process so leaning towards the acid/acid/base process so will probably have to recover methanol separately. Acid byproduct + base byproduct moderate heat and vacumm methanol recovery.

Love the knowledge being disceminated here. Thanks to all the experienced members for contibuting. Hope to be there one day myself.

Hi Graham,

Glad to hear that your push-pull method is coming along well.

I am working on a humanitarian engineering project designed for bringing biodiesel to the developing world. I was very interested to hear that you power a vacuum pump with a bicycle?

"I used a bicycle pump with the piston reversed to suck rather than blow"

As cost is an issue with these projects, your idea sounds ideal. If you could throw me a link with any more information I would be very grateful. Thank you.

~Ryan Johnson