Thinking of going over to water washing.

[julianf]

Im weighing up my options, and, initially, it seems that bubble washing may be best for me.

Im in no rush with making fuel, and im not sure that the titrated acid wash is necessarily less hands-on time anyhow?

I guess what id like is the process with least chance of failure.


Do many of you water washers bubble?  And, if you use other methods [of water washing] why do you like them?

[biobill]

well I find water washing the best method for me,how I make 150 ltr batch at a time using 2 stage method I dont recover methanol I do a prewash and I use hot water to do my wash, how I wash I just dump 15 ltrs of hot water in the bio and paddle wash oh and I use a twin blade 5 inch paddle  running at 2800rpm and  my first wash will run 2 mins and leave to settle around 10/15 mins but you will find that 90% of the wash water will settle in 5 mins, my second wash 15 ltrs water dump in the bio and wash for anything upto 8 mins, and I don't suffer from emulsions 

[K.H]

Nigel is the master of bubble washing

[nigelb]

Nigel is the master of bubble washing

Indeed I am. If you want any help or advice Julian then I'm here for you.

[julesandtash]

I am more than happy with acid wash. It is very little effort, most of the time involved is letting the water settle. If you want advice on that method then I can help you

[julianf]

Thank you for the offers of help.

At the moment, im just wanting to quiz people as to why they choose their method.  I know (more of less) the processes, but not why some people choose one and not the other.

I know evreyone does things different ways, so its a bit of a duff question, but what advantage would, say, acid wash, have over bubbling?

At the moment, it looks like bubble washing is the simplest, with the lowest chance of stress, but takes more time.  Im not in a hurry, so that's not really a disadvantage for me.

[willbuild]

I was bubble washing but i now acid wash followed by 3 or 4 water washes in prosessor. last batch needed only 3 washes 100 litre batch wvo 8 litre water washes (total 24 litres). Had a crystal clear 50\50 test 24 hrs after being in settling tank.

[Head Womble]

Don't forget acetone washing.
I do two stage, then prewash, then add around 30ml of acetone (180L batch) in each wash, this help remove soap quicker.
I can generally get away with just two washes (pump washes).

I moved away from acid washing, as although it works well, you can get a build up of scummy stuff in the bottom of the tank.

[julesandtash]

I do acid washing as I dont have the room for a wash tank so wanted to do it all in the processor.

[willbuild]

Don't forget acetone washing.
I do two stage, then prewash, then add around 30ml of acetone (180L batch) in each wash, this help remove soap quicker.
I can generally get away with just two washes (pump washes).

I moved away from acid washing, as although it works well, you can get a build up of scummy stuff in the bottom of the tank.

So for 100ltr batch would need about 20ml acetone per wash. might try it as i have a few litres.

[julianf]

I do acid washing as I dont have the room for a wash tank so wanted to do it all in the processor.

Im wondering if that may finally be a use for my other 400ltr why waste tank?

[Mickindashed]

I've been 5% pre-washing, de-mething and settling for the last year or so, but I'm about to start experimenting with water washing because even after settling my bio for a week or two I still get a tiny bit of glycerol drop out when I transfer to cubies. I want to see if water washing makes a difference to that.

[Head Womble]

Don't forget acetone washing.
I do two stage, then prewash, then add around 30ml of acetone (180L batch) in each wash, this help remove soap quicker.
I can generally get away with just two washes (pump washes).

I moved away from acid washing, as although it works well, you can get a build up of scummy stuff in the bottom of the tank.

So for 100ltr batch would need about 20ml acetone per wash. might try it as i have a few litres.

Yes, just put it in the wash water before adding to the bio.

I did some back to back testing on this, splitting the batch in half, acetone washing one half and normal pump washing the other.
The acetone half had lower soap levels after two washes than the other half did after three.

this is why I brought 5L of acetone from Nige at the BBB.