Emulsion Breaker

[terryecosse]

Has anyone tried Oilybits Emulsion Breaker 210 ?and is it any better than vinegar?

[RichardP]

Can't see it#s worth the money at £11 per litre. Vinegar or another acid will do the job easily.

[nigelb]

There are many cheaper products to split emulsions....dare I say it...even free ones. Your waste glycerine is the perfect breaker.

[terryecosse]

Thanks for that, will try it on next batch,losing quite a lot of oil,through emulsions.

[nathanrobo]

I used it first time I tried to pump wash a couple of years back (didn't neutralise).  This was a couple of processors back (goldenray) and I got a full tank of blamange.  After dumping some of this stuff in the emulsion split in a few seconds leaving just a few small lumps floating in the top - so it does work. 

I've had the odd call from people after they've had an emulsion and I've suggested vinegar to begin with then glycerin if that hasn't worked. I keep a bit of emulsion breaker now just in case.  Seems that if you don't need to use it everytime, having some in a cupboard somewhere is a sensible thing to do.

Not sure what it costs as it's a Chemiphase product and sold by a number of places.

[Chug]

Rather than spending money on fixing the result of a problem, why not spend time finding the cause?

[nigelb]

Rather than spending money on fixing the result of a problem, why not spend time finding the cause?

Wise words indeed master

[Soft top]

When I had my one and only emulsion (caused by turning pump on while water washing) I had 180 litres of thick porridge.
I took six 100ml samples of it and did some Dr pepper experiments using differing amounts of Glyc, vinegar and methanol.
This was the results after 1 hour -
5%glyc..............No change
10%glyc............began to split but slow
5% vinegar.......Slight change
10% vinegar.....better than glyc but not much
5% meth...........about 1/2 split
10% meth.........complete split very quick.

Based on the results I put 7.5% methanol into the processor, mixed (the pump struggled a bit), and then left to settle for a couple of hours.
When I checked later I had a complete split, bio/water. I drained the water and then carried on washing but without using the pump anymore.

[nigelb]

Interesting results there Soft top.

What you did is what many people don't.....experiment with "jug" samples until a fix can be found.

By far a better result, cost wise, than the emulsion breaker....... (edit) depending of course on what volumes of emulsion breaker that Nathan used (none supplied).

[Soft top]

The methanol that I used was some reclaimed stuff that was only 95% pure that I would not have used to make bio.

I should have also mentioned that when experimenting, I warmed the samples all to the same temp and then warmed stuff in processor to same temp as I was mixing. BUT it was a year ago and I cant remember what temperature I used.

[nigelb]

I can see the sense in using reclaimed to break an emulsion. A small volume of water in the methanol is not going to have any adverse effects.

The other bit of useful data you've supplied is regarding the temperature. The temperature, which may have some importance, is not probably not as critical as the fact that all tests and final fix are conducted at the same.

[terryecosse]

It looks like have been running the pump thats causing the problem, will try water wash without using pump, thanks for all the help

[willbuild]

I was bubble washing and put to much air into 75 lts of bio and made a nice magnolia emulsion.
put back into processor 7% reclaimed methanol heated to 60c mixed for 40 mins then settled for 2 hours.
It had separated and is now back in bubble wash tank, bubbling very gently (this time)

[willbuild]

When I had my one and only emulsion (caused by turning pump on while water washing) I had 180 litres of thick porridge.
I took six 100ml samples of it and did some Dr pepper experiments using differing amounts of Glyc, vinegar and methanol.
This was the results after 1 hour -
5%glyc..............No change
10%glyc............began to split but slow
5% vinegar.......Slight change
10% vinegar.....better than glyc but not much
5% meth...........about 1/2 split
10% meth.........complete split very quick.

Based on the results I put 7.5% methanol into the processor, mixed (the pump struggled a bit), and then left to settle for a couple of hours.
When I checked later I had a complete split, bio/water. I drained the water and then carried on washing but without using the pump anymore.

[Soft top]

Yep. My only time I got all emulsional. When I turned the pump on.
This has taught me never to pump wash. Just spray water in slowly.. 20 - 25litre through fine mister. Takes 20 minutes to go in. settle for 40 minutes and then drain. I do this 3 times then dry the bio. No extra chemicals. Never used vinegar or acid. Works every time for me, even with crap feedstock.