Biopowered - vegetable oil and biodiesel forum
General => Chatter => Topic started by: Tony on July 25, 2012, 10:54:32 PM
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Sunday went to put fuel in the car for a trip but it foamed up from pumping and the bubbles took a long time to pop - a sure sign of soap - this was confirmed by nigel's soap test. This was fuel settled a week, drywashed and 1u filtered.
Clearly the drywash tower needed changing. But it was that or pump fuel... so in it went (take a chance!). I stuck 25l in a drum in the boot so I could see what was happening in the tank.
Trip went OK. But, today I checked my 25l drum and it had a layer of black slime at the bottom... not good - must be the same in the tank.
So today I've drained the car's tank (seemingly no black goo - where did it go?), repacked the drywash tower, primed it by circulating 10l until it went clear, re-drywashed my last batch, drywashed a settled batch, made a new batch - I'm knackered! Car is currently completely empty - zero litres in the tank, will have to 1u filter some tomorrow morning and put in the car.
This game is a right palava sometimes...
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You really need to move over to the wet side Tony. You'll never have to drain your tank again.
Glad the kit came in handy though.
Nige
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The kit is often handy.
Sometimes a 50:50 test gives cloudy results but it's just bio sticking to the sides, so ti looks cloudy even when it isn't. Your test doesn't lie though :)
My fear of water washing is making emulsions and having to cart water to and from the outbuilding at the end of the garden...
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A year or so ago I never thought I'd say this, but I have to agree with Nige ... water washing seems to be the way to go. That said, I'd like to get a full and severe winter under my belt before I'm totally convinced.
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I have no doubt that water washing produces a better quality fuel, consistently. But it's the extra effort and knowing how to deal with the inevitable emulsions...
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One way that newcomers to water washing fail is having the bubbler on too powerful a setting. I control my bubbles with an aquarium air control valve. The bubbles are slow and gentle for the first 2-3 washes. It does not need to be any higher . There are no benefits. As I've stated in the past 5-6 washes is all I need to remove the soap and methanol. Generally washes 4 and 5 have increased agitation and wash 6 is normally a hot, pump wash.
I have had my fair share of emulsions, some recently when experimenting with in tank pump washing, but they are all recoverable. I even had a partial emulsion in my wash tank about 5 batches ago. Not wanting to pump everthing back to the reactor I went to tesco and got some malt vinegar. Following a succesful recovery in a 1 lt jug I upscaled to the wash tank volume and this also had a satisfactory conclusion.
50-60lts of water to wash 150lts of raw bio is pretty good I reckon.
Nige
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So for my new process batch size of 375l I'd need about 125l of water? I'd have to plumb in drainage and a cold water supply for that.
I take it most water washers do so in garages with easy access to drains and cold water?
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Until recently the water supply for my shed was a hose which I plugged in on a hoselock connector each time I wanted to use it.
Your main problem would be drainage. You could try looking for a second-hand Saniflow or similar and run that on a large bore hose. Once you have running water and a sink in the shed you'll wonder what you ever did without it.
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Well this batch still hasn't settled (it's the one I was talking about on VOD). I've been making and using others in the meantime! But, I have me an agitation pump to experiment with now :)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221097029477
If that works I wonder if a loudspeaker on an AC transformer (nice loud 50Hz hum) stuck in a plastic bag and dangled into the bio would work too.