Biopowered - vegetable oil and biodiesel forum
Biodiesel => Chemistry and process => Topic started by: Julian on February 25, 2014, 05:53:48 PM
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Finally got my methanol delivery from Basic today, so I thought I'd run a batch.
Titrated quite high for my usual oil supplies at 3, so I underdosed the NaOH by about 10%. Got a lovely 3/27 pass and a nice quick and thorough demeth thanks to the super new pump.
At this point the super new pump now AKA Frankenpump, jumped up and bit me in the arse! I added 5 ltrs of water for a glycerin wash and produced a thick brown emulsion. Managed to split it with quite a lot of acid, but it seems to be taking quite a while. First time I've ever had a 7% wash go breasts up.
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Clearly you just need a bigger pump.
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I used to get this regularly, most of the time it would split after adding back some of the methanol I'd recovered (2 or 3 liters in a 180L batch).
But I found a way around this problem, don't demeth, just water wash.
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The obvious solution is not adding water in the first place - in 50k miles and 10k litres I've not added water yet ;)
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The obvious solution is not adding water in the first place - in 50k miles and 10k litres I've not added water yet ;)
I must admit I'm giving your overdose method some serious consideration at pressent.
I'm spending far too much time, effort and fuel (to and from the workshop) on bio production.
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Back from the pub just checked it again and three phases are just recognisable in the sample, water, glycerin and bio. Not quite sure why the water has separated from the glycerin and the bio/glycerin is only just discernable. Not sure I'd notice the interface when draining the processor.
Needs a little more thought ... might give the methanol idea a go.