500 lt tank as a Processor

[Tony]

Tomy and Keith, I have the silver bubble wrap for you, more than enough for two layer each.

Mark, thank you very much.  You're like our one stop shop for biodiesel recyclables.

Top Wombling mate!

[K.H]

Ha,i like that,Mark - Top Womble!

[Tony]

I think he's Great Uncle Bulgaria, after all he is in charge of a wombling facility.

[Head Womble]

We've got a new man at the wombling facility and all weekday wombling has ben stopped 
but weekends I'm still in womble mode 
Now I just need to store things until the weekend.

[K.H]

More jobs done today,fixed the last leak,insulated it and fitted an eductor,only the condenser and control box to go now.
Thanks to Will Crosby for its vest and Head Womble for its nice shiny jacket,also Nigel for a couple of fittings to get the eductor in place

[Tony]

Hey looking good   Is that a bio processor or a satellite?  Or one then the other

[Tony]

How's it all running Keith? Did you fix the leak?

[K.H]

All leaks fixed ,the only on going problem is rust,the tank was quite rusty between the liner and skin,the first couple of batches were ok but since fitting the eductor it seems to keep removing rust.
Every sample contains a fine powder like sediment,thankfully washing seems to remove it but its about time it was all gone and it stopped

[nigelb]

goodness me....I don't think I've seen quite so much silver bubble wrap in one place before. Very nice chap!

[Rotary-Motion]

kieth - now you done a few batches what is your verdict on the eductor???

does it convert more quickly or you have seen no change to speed of processing? or is it just minimal hard to say?

[Tony]

Yes I'm also curious.  I was a little underwhelmed by the eductor demo at the BBB, and it was clear that positioning was critical (not so easy to achieve with steel fittings welded into a vessel).

[K.H]

Well ive not noticed much difference but that could well be down to me and the positioning,using the original "inlet pipe" and using the shortest possible fixing combination a correctly positioned eductor limits my batch to 280 litres of oil.
After finishing the build (control panel excepted) i moved over to a 2 stage non titration which ive noticed gives varying amounts of glyc so that also doesn't help the eductor position!
Just to complicate matters i have methylate on order so that will also mean alterations to the position or batch size so until i settle on a process and catalyst ive stopped playing with it.
Oh and im still getting rust particles in every batch,showing no signs of stopping.

[Tony]

Interesting.  Why the volume limit with the eductor? Surely you can fit 375l of veg in with 75l Meth for a grand total of 450l, well within its volume capability?

BTW did you port and polish that Y trap, I forgot to mention how super shiny it is   Does block up quickly with BCBs though when filtering oil, I'm looking at extending the trap part to take more volume.  Was wondering whether something like that could be used to trap rust bits (or are they dust rather than flake?)

[K.H]

Its to do with the original inlet pipe i fitted,i went through the side at the highest point where the side was still flat-before it curves in towards the bolt down top,i did this without thinking about an eductor.
So by the time i fit a slow 90 then a reducer and the eductor its correct position below the surface of the oil means a batch size of 280.
Im not going to move the inlet unless i see big gains from the eductor.
Ah yes the Y trap spent a bit of time on the polishing wheel  ,i like shiny!

[Tony]

Cor it is posh at Tosser Towers, got a machine to polish your boots.  Around here we just scrape the muck off as best we can 

Was planning to put my pipes in through the curved bit at the top.  Got some HSS burrs that seem to be good at shaping steel holes to unusual profiles.