Nightmare batch - water washing.

[neisel]

Had put some wet oil in the machine last w.e & left it until Wed. morning. Drained off all the water that had settled out, about 4-5 litres.

On Wed. heated the oil to 65-70, ran the machine for an hour with the top off to evap. water, settled for another hour, got another 2-300 mls off.

Glyc washed 140 litres w/ 20 of glyc for an hour, settled for an hour. 19 litres of methanol w/ 940 grms KOH added by venturi.

Circulated at 65ish for 70 mins, settled for 60, 30% unconverted. Expected about 10 -15% as I thought the oil was reasonably dry.

Don't remember exactly what I put in for stage 2 but it was about 80% of what the no-tit calculator said I should put in. I've noticed it's telling me to put in more than I need.

Anyhoo, 100% clear conversion, 7% pre-wash, which for the first time made an emulsion which I eliminated by adding back about 7 litres of glys (which didn't work) then strong acid (which did).

Then I start water washing. Got 2 in before the close of play on Wednesday, figuring I'd be done by lunchtime Thursday

At 19.20 today, Friday, I stopped water washing. Lost count but I must have done about 16 or 17 fifteen litre hot water washes in total. I was ready to burn the godamn shed with everything BD in it.

Clearly I made a huge amount of soap, just not sure where I did this.

Thoughts?

[Head Womble]

Firstly, as you stated yourself the oil was still wet, so you#ll of made a good amount of soap then.
Secondly, adding enough acid to break the emulsion when gly is still present will make it very hard to wash (been there myself).

What was the yield ?

[neisel]

I've just finished drying it & there are 123 litres in the processor.

Add to that about 13-14 litres of converted but undried oil I've recovered form the many, many washes I've done.

How do I do a better job of drying this oil? I've got a fair bit of it & am quite fond of it 'cos it was free.

[oakwoodtv]

One hour at 70c is not long enough with wet oil its over an hour at 100c to dewater
for me.

[willbuild]

I heat to 95c for a hour, then turn off heater leave to run for another hour or two whilst temp drops.

[Tony]

Interesting.  I've never glyc pre-washed but plan to switch to KOH to give it a go at some point.

I must admit that I'd have done what Neisel clearly has, heat and drain free water than mix glyc to dry the rest.  I guess sometimes that is not sufficient if the oil is very wet.

Was the oil nasty creamy stuff?  In my experience that traps a surprising amount of water.

I run mine up to 105C which gives some confidence that it is dry, obviously though this does add to the heating cost.

I've got an M67 I can use for heating oil to well over 100C but still waiting on a steel drum to use it in.

[Jonzeyboy43]

Glyc wash at 50 degrees for 1-2 hours then 2 hours @ 100+ with Ventura running in processor surprising how much water still comes out.

[Manfred]

If you Gly wash first then Venturi dry isn't it the methanol that's migrated over that's condensing out ?

[neisel]

Tony,

Yes it was creamy stuff.

Next batch I'll heat hotter & see how it goes.

Just to clarify, was the huge amount of soap (I'm assuming it was soap) caused by adding the acid when there was still glyc in the machine?

[Head Womble]

Glyc wash at 50 degrees for 1-2 hours then 2 hours @ 100+ with Ventura running in processor surprising how much water still comes out.

If you venturi dry then gly wash you'll get a much better result.

[willbuild]

Glyc wash at 50 degrees for 1-2 hours then 2 hours @ 100+ with Ventura running in processor surprising how much water still comes out.

If you heat glyc to 75c plus it will start to foam.

[Julian]

Another thing to bear in mind when trying to eliminate water from the process is BCBs.

I've never proved it but, I believe that food particles can hold on to water.  Eliminating these is very easy, but many people don't bother to remove them.

[Jamesrl]

Another thing to bear in mind when trying to eliminate water from the process is BCBs.

I've never proved it but, I believe that food particles can hold on to water.  Eliminating these is very easy, but many people don't bother to remove them.

A belief that most of the more experienced brewers also hold.

I filter down to 200u to eliminate as many of the food particals as possible.