Water washing vs demething.

[Tony]

Doesn't that turn soap back into FFAs?  While that passes ATSM standards, which seem generous on FFAs (does the EN standard have a FFA limit?) I thought from the injection pump manufacturer studies that FFAs were seen as a bad plan (corrosive)?

[Carrington]

Like meth the FFA's are washed out (I believe) but most people only have a few % FFA to start with

[Greenchef]

Just opened a bag of soya beans in the kitchen for a veggie salad and something has just struck me, soya beans are massive compared to rapeseed, (about the size of a big broad bean!)

Now both are seeds so must have mucilage present. Mucilage is a massive emulsion enabler. Could is be that by the nature of size ie rapeseed being very small therefore having a massive external surface area, that rapeseed oil will lend itself to more emulsion?

I know from experience that dressings made with rapeseed oil are much less likely  to split that dressings made with olive oil for example. (Olive is a berry, so no mucilage!)

So could it be that the source oil is responsible for the emulsions forming and not the process?

Should be a lot more straight forward to test than my curry house oil theory although musilage could well be the link!

[Greenchef]

Just had Anouther thought, soya is  actually a legume not even a seed so possibly no musilage present at all hence no emulsification!?

[Tony]

Interesting theories!  I'd always put emulsion down to monoglycerides from incomplete conversion but then there are other problems even with supposedly complete conversion batches that might well be explained by musilage present.  Perhaps then water washing is better than settling if it rinses musilage  out?

Any ideas on how musilage might affect combustion?