Cost effective yes but what about the time and effort?
Not having reclaimed i dont really know the timescale,it would be interesting to hear Jules views as someone who finds it "better" to wash now than reclaim
I dont see anything to be gained from meth recovery these days. The energy consumption is quite large to recover only a small amount of methanol. Unless it is done well there is potential to introduce water in the process (if using the recovered meth) when the whole idea of ASM is to stop water involvement. If you dont use the recovered methanol then what is the point in spending money on energy recovering it.
Rather, I do everything can to minimise the amount I put in.
The only thing I don't do in the same vessel now is heat and settle the oil (that happens in a tank next to the processor but there really is no reason why it could not be done in the processor.
i dont use a condenser anymore, in fact I gave it to Snippy (from VOD) last week.
I just use the two stage no titration process using methylate. Only 40 litres of methanol for a full 300 litre batch and around 6 litres or so of methylate.
The methanol amounts must be close to the minimum as my glycerol is quite thick and gloopy, even from the first stage. It always sets solid with 48hrs which makes handling it awkward as I have to heat it in order to use it as glycwash.
After glyc wash and two stage processing, I do the titrated acid wash, then two water washes in the processor then dry by running the procesor with the venturi open sucking in air and all three covers on the of my 'why waste' 400 litre tank removed (two 4" and one 6")
As soon as the weather improves I will be drilling two 4" holes through the wall and fitting a fan and ducting to blow air into one port and out of the other.
I could, in all reality, do the whole thing in the one vessel if I needed.
