Jelly at bottom of settling tank

[greasemonkey]

My un demethed bio has been sitting in the settling tank for a week now, in full sun.
There is about five litres of clear jelly at the bottom, along with some thickish yellowy looking stuff, which I guess is soaps.

It hardly smells of meth, I'm just putting it across the diffuser right now, hoping to get a bit more out.
Its pretty murky with a 50/50 test.

What is the jelly?

I'm basically fed up of this batch. I think most the meth will be out after a few hours of diffusing, but its going to be soapy.
What is the worst the soap can do? Block a filter? Surely 80 litre won't harm.

I've got all but a few bits to make a proper condenser now, so want this lot out of the way, and into the tank.

Incidentaly, the volume has reduced by at least 10 litres. Meths evaporated or not?

[Jamesrl]

Siphon from the top through a double J-cloth filter and use, the worse you can do is block your fuel filter.

[nigelb]

Siphon from the top once the soap has settled again. The mixing through the diffuser is sure to have messed things up.

As for the jelly............who knows...but talk to Julian he knows a thing or two about jelly

[julianf]

Ive had some jelly issues recently.

I would suggest that its bio locked in a matrix of *somthing else*

Just like the jelly, that some people like to eat, is water, locked in a sugar / bone matrix.

Ive been brewing with tallow recently, and found that any unreacted tallow will hold the rest of the bio in a jelly structure.  So, it may, for example, say virtually 100% percent converted, but, demeth and cool at that stage, and you get the jelly.

Nathan has kindly lent me a fuge - my plan is to run this as the demethed brew is cooling, so as anything comming out of solution gets taken out before it has a chance to do anything. 


I have also tried smashing up the jelly, where upon it then forms a, sort of, slush, and then putting that in a filter sock.  Sure enough perfect bio drips out the bottom, but, after 40 ltrs or so, the sock jams up completely.



I would suggest, if is not normally an issue for you, just chuck the lot back in with your next glyc wash.  Any bio / unreacted oil will just join the next reaction then.

[greasemonkey]

Cheers guys. I've left the jelly in the settling tank, and just diffused the bio, so what Julianf says really. I'll chuck it in with a batch and see what happens. Probably not the next batch though.

This can have a day or two to settle. Then I'll just run it through a j cloth.

Great stuff. Be nice to get it in the tank and see what happens.

[therecklessengineer]

Yes, I've found this jelly matrix also.

My theory is that it is a residual methanol content keeping it in a jelly like form. Adding heat and diffusing for longer fixed mine.

[julianf]

I tried cooking up a sample on the oven (in light of what you said before) and, unfortunatly, it did not change mine - i still got jelly on cooling : (

[greasemonkey]

Quite possibly is methanol related. I might try some experiments on it at some stage.

[nigelb]

Quite possibly is methanol related. I might try some experiments on it at some stage.

Try talking to Julian...not Julianf!

There are many posts on what he's managed to recover from jelly batches

[greasemonkey]

Quite possibly is methanol related. I might try some experiments on it at some stage.

Try talking to Julian...not Julianf!

There are many posts on what he's managed to recover from jelly batches

Will do, I'll have a re read of them. They have more meaning to me now I have seen what it's about.
Its only a little bit anyway. I might just use it as Napalm.............

[Tony]

IIRC your batch had some water accidentally introduced - I was amazed you got at far as you did!  Unfortunately as with all jelly, it's the removal of the Methanol that makes it manifest.  Take the clear bio off the top and throw the rest in with the next batch.

[greasemonkey]

IIRC your batch had some water accidentally introduced - I was amazed you got at far as you did!  Unfortunately as with all jelly, it's the removal of the Methanol that makes it manifest.  Take the clear bio off the top and throw the rest in with the next batch.

Ah, right. That's good in a way. I know most the methanol is out.

[greasemonkey]

Job's on. Put about 15 Litres in the vehicle tank this morning, on top of probably about the same of 50/50 veg/dino mix.

Power isn't great. Runs nice and smooth and quiet. Power delivery is nice and smooth and consistent.
Needs a good bit more throttle for the same results though. Its a bit different to running on dino, and nowhere near the power of good straight veg.
Top end power is well down.
She ticks over sweet as a nut, and seemed to start good.
I've done over 20 mile and it's still going, so can't be too bad.