mcdonalds oil

[alifreddy]

that's a tiny bottle I measured it in a measuring cylinder 27 mls and added 3 mls of bio. I got my bio to change now on my own just drained off 20 litres of glycerol after adding 10

[alifreddy]

you have helped I'm a courier and don't want to be putting sub standard fuel in my van as yesterday I covered 350 miles from Lincolnshire to st neots then to earls court from Huntingdon all on my homemade bio so it cant be that bad

[thewormman]

What make and year of van is it?

[alifreddy]

1.7 di Vauxhall combo 04 reg used to run it on filtered veg oil mainly rapeseed and 10% diesel

[willbuild]

so if it ran well on your veggie mix, why go through the hassle of bio?

[alifreddy]

broke down one evening after going to Birmingham couldn't get it going again had to be recovered home runs more fast on bio with winter coming had problems starting it burnt a starter out

[nigelb]

I'm looking forward already to alifreddys winteriser threads. Should be as interesting as this one.

[alifreddy]

I think I know why it failed the 50/50 test but nearly passed the 27/3 test. there is too much methanol in it. I kept on adding a bit more mixing with a bit more catalyst.

will dry wash then bubble dry it see if that helps

[julianf]

ive lost track of what youre doing, but the 27/3 is for conversion, and has nothing to do with the 50/50 (which is for soap)

get the 27/3 right first, then demeth, be it by boiling it off, or water washing.

water washing will remove both the meth and the soap.
boiling off the meth will leave the soap behind, then you will need to wait for it to settle out.

if youre passing your product, which is probably not great, through some sort of resin / shavings tower, youll probably knacker the medium real quick, and still have issues.

please refer to point (d) -

d) Follow the advice given (this is optional - but if you don't follow it, make it clear why you didn't and what you did instead BEFORE asking the same or another question again!)

[willbuild]

so how many litres of meth as this batch had?

[alifreddy]

only about 14 litres to 65 litres of oil I think I used about a kilo of koh. got about 12 litres of glycerol plus the 10 I added

[therecklessengineer]

That's about 15 g/litre on KOH.

I suspect you might have a water problem. How did you dry your oil before reacting? Did you do a hot pan test?

[alifreddy]

heated oil in processor then drained a litre or 2 off the bottom

[willbuild]

what temp did you heat it to?

[Head Womble]

the koh I'm using has been left with lid off container and a bit old will this affect reaction

Yes, the KOH will have carbonated and you'll need to use far more than normal.

This will be a big contra bution to your problems.

You need to get some new KOH before you try another batch.

Now this next bit is something I've never posted before, on any of the forums I use.
If you do not replace your KOH and keep asking why you can't get a 27/3 pass I for one will not be offering any further advice.

Making bio can be dangerous unless some simple basic steps are not followed,
1, methanol fumes can kill, all aspects of the process MUST done in a manner that releases as little methanol fumes as possable,
not by opening the lid of a reactor containing hot methanol rich bio to scoop out a capfull , the only thing that could make this worse would be lighting a cigarette at the same time.
2. KOH, NaOH are highly corrosive and WILL burn you if it comes in contact with skin, it may blind you if it gets into your eyes.
Both of these chemicals need to be handled with great care.
3. All advice given is drawn form a collection of many many years experience of making bio, we (the forum members) will not tell you to do something dangerous, we are only trying to help you make good bio SAFELY,
by not heeding our advice you may just damage your van, but you may also kill yourself and others around you.