Meth wanted

[Mr Tickle]

I've had to ditch 2 barrels of meth as they were contaminated with water.(not sure what use they are or how to dispose of other than burning it?)
I have 1000 litres of oil to process and then I'm done with bio. I'll be knocking down my garage so everything has to go.
If anyone has a spare barrel they want to off load or split a new load let me know.

Thanks

[neisel]

Did you ever try using the cement drying process - https://biopowered.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=3432.msg41708#msg41708

[dgs]

Yes, we were waiting for your report on this method Mr T but it never happened.

[Mr Tickle]

I will give it a go this week and let you know how it goes.
I was a bit reluctant to try because if it doesn't work it makes the oil wet and i have to recover it (dry it again) before I can try again.
Fingers crossed.

[Mr Tickle]

OK - Report. Meth contaminated with water and an attempt to remove water using the cement method.

I put 18 litres of meth into a cubie and added 1 litre of dry cement.
Shook it around a number of time over the next 48 hours.
Three days later if you shake the cubie the cement is still free suspended in the liquid and mixes with the meth and then settles to the bottom again. there are no solids.

I was expecting the water in the meth to react with the cement and leave a solid cement block at the bottom leaving the remaining meth to be free of water, this has not happened.

So either:
A) The reaction does not work as recommended
B) It has worked but I'm unable to test it (no water test kit)
C) Other?

If you think it could have worked, then i should dry my oil again and use the treated meth to process again and see how it goes this time?

[dgs]

Why not try a small test using 1 litre of oil and 200mls of your dried methanol + catalyst before you go 'full process'.

[countrypaul]

If you don't have a hydrometer, you could try weighing the dried meth vs the wet meth vs water.  Take a clean dry bottle with a narrow neck such as a wine bottle or plastic fizzy drinks bottle, weigh the empty bottle, fill to half way up the neck (the narrowest part) with dry meth and weigh, repeat with wet meth and with water. You need to make sure all the liquids are at the same temperature, and exactly the same volume by marking the bottle neck. You are only looking at a few grams difference, the table here will the help you work out the density: https://biopowered.co.uk/wiki/Testing_methanol_purity

[Mr Tickle]

Thanks both.
I will try the 1 litre method, just remind me how long i need to shake the bottle to get enough of a reaction to test this?

I actually have a hydrometer somewhere just can't find where it is. It looks like you can buy one on ebay for about a fiver. Would I need an alcohol one or an methanol one or are they one and the same?

[countrypaul]

You really need a hydrometer that will cover the range of SGs likely for pure and slightly contaminated methanol. I would suggest from 0.8 to 0.9, but a slightly wider range would be acceptable. Many alcohol hydrometers for the home brew market might not work to indicate the accurate density much above 95%methanol /5%water.

Ethanol has a very similar SG to methanol so a Trellis hydrometer is usually adequate for our needs.

Be careful if trying to use proof spirit figures, as US and UK use different scales for proof spirit.

[dgs]

Thanks both.
I will try the 1 litre method, just remind me how long i need to shake the bottle to get enough of a reaction to test this?

I actually have a hydrometer somewhere just can't find where it is. It looks like you can buy one on ebay for about a fiver. Would I need an alcohol one or an methanol one or are they one and the same?

shake for 30 seconds with 10min gaps. 3 times should be enough.

[nigelb]

You really need to recover your two drums Tony. Meth has just gone through the roof

[Mr Tickle]

Last night I did the pop bottle test.
The result looks good. I have clear (albeit quite dark) oil/bio mix and a clear glyc drop out.
I'm unable to to a 90/30 as the only meth I have to test it is from the wet stuff.
When I was processing with the wet meth the resulting oil was cloudy/milky with no drop out so this hopefully has fixed it.

I'll dry off my wet 200L batch and give it a go this weekend.

Many thanks for the help and information to recover this. 

Mr T.

[dgs]

You really need to recover your two drums Tony. Meth has just gone through the roof

Thanks for the heads up Nige, so I phoned up my supplier and its only gone up by £2 for a 205 litre drum.

[Mr Tickle]

I processed the 200 litre batch this weekend. I only had time for the 1st stage and it converted at 50% which is what I normally expect. So far so good it looks like this cement fix works