Does anyone know how a mix of 75% methanol with 35% ethanol would work for bio? I recently came across such a supply and want to know what my chances are of making it work. Any ideas?

BTW, it's all supposedly dry.

Thanks

Should work OK. KOH will dissolve easier than NaOH, and you might want to use slightly more total alcohol mix -- say, 25-30% of oil. Kick up the alkali a bit also, to maybe 6g + titr. NaOH, or 8.4g + titr. KOH.

You may have trouble getting the glycerine to drop out, particularly if you use high titrating oil. Or it may drop out on its own, but only after 12 hours....

Eric from some test batches I've done if you're titrating under 3 or so I think it'll work great will it pass 3/27? I don't know. The big batch I did with a similar ratio came out nasty at first then cleared. Yield was marginal at best probably fairly poor conversion, still good IDI fuel. I attribute the difficulties to high titrating oil and higher water content of the oil. Can you get a sample to test with your oil or do you have to buy a big qty?

I think I'll be able to get a small amount. The guy that told me about it just got 30 gallons of it the other day and is going to test it out. He's a real novice though with biodiesel so i'm not sure if he'll know whats going on and such...

Hey how much is that stuff costing if you don't mind. I might be interested in it. You could PM me if you don't want to post it here.

yaric: why do you need a 110% mix?

mostly because I love math

yaric,
I did it and it worked great, better than any of my previous batches over the past 4 years. Remember to mix your KOH with the methanol first, then add the ethanol to it.

I have also tried this approach with 140 proof ethanol. I distilled the 140 ethanol brought it up to 180 proof the approx volume was 4O litres of 180 proof ethonal I added approx 4 litres or 100% pure methonal and it proofed out at approx 198 proof alcohol solution I have yet to try it on rendered tallow but am hoping the results are pleasing, Did you make BD with that solution?? Did it react properly?? let me know I would be interested to here your results..

Cheers!

quote:

I have also tried this approach with 140 proof ethanol. I distilled the 140 ethanol brought it up to 180 proof the approx volume was 4O litres of 180 proof ethonal I added approx 4 litres or 100% pure methonal and it proofed out at approx 198 proof alcohol solution I have yet to try it on rendered tallow but am hoping the results are pleasing,

Did you mean 400 Liters of methanol? Otherwise you can't have been anywhere close to 198 proof. At 4 liters you would have had 182 proof. Still 11% alcohol by volume.