'stale' bio, what to do?

[BANDIT2]

I keep a bit of bio back from every batch, store it in cubies, and use it through my space heater in the winter months.
Last winter with a combination of mild weather and longish covid , I have around 100 litres that are at least a year old.
It won't ignite in my space heater, fresh bio, no problem as I've tried it.
What's the best way to use it, a bit every fill up or can I reprocess it?
Best way or method to reprocess?
TIA.
Chris.

[nigelb]

Not sure how a space heater operates but I think the bio will ignite just fine under compression in your vehicles Chris. Blend it with fresh bio if you're worried. Lets face it...if unprocessed veg oil works in a diesel engine I'm pretty certain your old bio isn't going to protest once squeezed!

[WesleyB]

If the bio has degraded some it could be purified by dry washing it .   I have used magnesium silicate to dry wash biodiesel .  Water in biodiesel will hydrolyse the ester into free fatty acids and alcohol over time .  The free fatty acids can be removed with magnesim silicate .  We    used magnesium silicate in a fish and chips restaurant to clean up used vegetable oil .   Heat the bio some to about 50-60 degrees celcius then with stirring add magnesim silicate powder .  Allow several minutes for the crud to absorb into the white powder .  Allow to settle . decant off the biodiesel leaving behind most of the powder .  Filter out remaining magnesium silicate .   The treated product ought to be good as new .     Might do a small amount first as a test batch . 

[BANDIT2]

Good point Nige, the space heater works the same as a spray gun, compressed air (only 4psi though) runs through the nozzle and the Venturi effect sucks it up from the fuel tank and mixes it with the compressed air to atomise it.

[Keef]

Ask and you shall receive
Post edited for you

[nigelb]

I see...so it ignites atomised fuel.

[BANDIT2]

Via a glow plug type thing then the flame is self sustaining.

[BANDIT2]

Ask and you shall receive
Post edited for you

Ta.!

[Jehu]

If the bio has degraded some it could be purified by dry washing it .   I have used magnesium silicate to dry wash biodiesel .  Water in biodiesel will hydrolyse the ester into free fatty acids and alcohol over time .  The free fatty acids can be removed with magnesim silicate .  We    used magnesium silicate in a fish and chips restaurant to clean up used vegetable oil .   Heat the bio some to about 50-60 degrees celcius then with stirring add magnesim silicate powder .  Allow several minutes for the crud to absorb into the white powder .  Allow to settle . decant off the biodiesel leaving behind most of the powder .  Filter out remaining magnesium silicate .   The treated product ought to be good as new .     Might do a small amount first as a test batch .

I'd be surprised if any biodieselers over here would use Magnesol (Dallas Group). Its danger to injection pumps scared us all off it. We dry wash with hardwood sawdust nowadays.

[BANDIT2]

Update- I decided to do the tests again but by decreasing the fuel Syphon height and playing with the air pressure.
The stale bio still wouldn't ignite and then the fresh bio decided it didn't want to either!
I have spare nozzles, filters and Syphon nozzle holders but replacing them made no difference. I then fitted a pressure gauge to the compressor and that was showing a healthy 4psi.
The tube taking the air from the compressor to the nozzle holder looked perfect and seemed perfectly air tight when I blocked off one end and blew down the other.
In desperation I replaced the hose with a new length and it runs perfect again yay!
When I fired it up the flame was protruding around 2 foot out the burner tube which was a bit scary, turned the pressure down to 3.5psi and it's now how it should be, the end glowing red with no visible flame externally.
Must be a small pin hole or something in the old hose but I couldn't find it, it isn't an option to spray soapy water to find leaks as it runs past exposed electronics.

[dgs]

Update- I decided to do the tests again but by decreasing the fuel Syphon height and playing with the air pressure.
The stale bio still wouldn't ignite and then the fresh bio decided it didn't want to either!
I have spare nozzles, filters and Syphon nozzle holders but replacing them made no difference. I then fitted a pressure gauge to the compressor and that was showing a healthy 4psi.
The tube taking the air from the compressor to the nozzle holder looked perfect and seemed perfectly air tight when I blocked off one end and blew down the other.
In desperation I replaced the hose with a new length and it runs perfect again yay!
When I fired it up the flame was protruding around 2 foot out the burner tube which was a bit scary, turned the pressure down to 3.5psi and it's now how it should be, the end glowing red with no visible flame externally.
Must be a small pin hole or something in the old hose but I couldn't find it, it isn't an option to spray soapy water to find leaks as it runs past exposed electronics.

Have you tried your 'stale' bio since you got it working again. I've used old bio like over 1 year and never known it to  go off.

[dgs]

If the bio has degraded some it could be purified by dry washing it .   I have used magnesium silicate to dry wash biodiesel .  Water in biodiesel will hydrolyse the ester into free fatty acids and alcohol over time .  The free fatty acids can be removed with magnesim silicate .  We    used magnesium silicate in a fish and chips restaurant to clean up used vegetable oil .   Heat the bio some to about 50-60 degrees celcius then with stirring add magnesim silicate powder .  Allow several minutes for the crud to absorb into the white powder .  Allow to settle . decant off the biodiesel leaving behind most of the powder .  Filter out remaining magnesium silicate .   The treated product ought to be good as new .     Might do a small amount first as a test batch .

I'd be surprised if any biodieselers over here would use Magnesol (Dallas Group). Its danger to injection pumps scared us all off it. We dry wash with hardwood sawdust nowadays.

Well I will surprise you then Jehu. I do use it from time to time, great stuff. It's the way people use it that gives the stuff a bad name.

Take a look at this
http://biopowered.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2986.0

[BANDIT2]

Update- I decided to do the tests again but by decreasing the fuel Syphon height and playing with the air pressure.
The stale bio still wouldn't ignite and then the fresh bio decided it didn't want to either!
I have spare nozzles, filters and Syphon nozzle holders but replacing them made no difference. I then fitted a pressure gauge to the compressor and that was showing a healthy 4psi.
The tube taking the air from the compressor to the nozzle holder looked perfect and seemed perfectly air tight when I blocked off one end and blew down the other.
In desperation I replaced the hose with a new length and it runs perfect again yay!
When I fired it up the flame was protruding around 2 foot out the burner tube which was a bit scary, turned the pressure down to 3.5psi and it's now how it should be, the end glowing red with no visible flame externally.
Must be a small pin hole or something in the old hose but I couldn't find it, it isn't an option to spray soapy water to find leaks as it runs past exposed electronics.

Have you tried your 'stale' bio since you got it working again. I've used old bio like over 1 year and never known it to  go off.

Yes, ran it for a few hrs yesterday faultlessly. This think burns 4 LTRs an hour.

[BANDIT2]

Thing.

[Jehu]

I'd be surprised if any biodieselers over here would use Magnesol (Dallas Group). Its danger to injection pumps scared us all off it. We dry wash with hardwood sawdust nowadays.

Well I will surprise you then Jehu. I do use it from time to time, great stuff. It's the way people use it that gives the stuff a bad name.

Take a look at this
http://biopowered.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=2986.0

Yes, I'm surprised, but if you've got it working for you well done. I have a small tub of magnesium silicate I got gratis from Ileos (formerly ICI) who wanted to market it in competition to Dallas, but Dallas took or threatened Ileos with legal action. After reading the scare stories about magnesium silicate I decided not to go down that road.