Does B100 evaporate

[CanidrivE]

Hi guys, I changed the fuel filter back in Dec 2020, and put the old filter into a plastic tube to drain the drags into, then for me to cut open and see how much "coffee granules" are blocking the filter.
This was left at the back of the garage out side, North facing wall, under a roof.   

Came across it yesterday, "had forgot about it" and the stuff that had drained has turned into, what looks like glyc.   I am going to try and put a photograph on here when I get the camera out.
<NO, I do not own such type of phone>

Dave

[RichardP]

I don't think it will evaporate, but it will oxidise and turns thick, dark and gungy. Recently had a garage tidy up and a couple of good bio containers (for long trips) had dark thick gunge in them, only thing that had been in them was bio some time agao.

[dgs]

It polymerises over tome but doesn't evaporate. Presumably if your filter  had residual glycerol inside it you don't water wash.

[CanidrivE]

Interesting reply's guys.

My method is as follows
2 stage reaction,
2nd glycerol is saved for the next batch, which is drained off over 1 - 5 days...  95% of glycerol is dropped out after a few hours, as for the rest, it's just slow and easy.
Once dropped out AKA, when I start the water wash, first is with the pump ON, I used to add food grade acid at this point, but dgs told me I was making soap ? think that is what you said, so I no longer use any acid, hence the longer slower drop out.
After the pump wash is drained with what looks like a little drop of soap (some times) it gets a mist wash over a couple of days, 2 - 3 hrs on, rest of day off

Photograph, yes I know it is small
Top part, the filter and as Richard called it dark thick gunge
Middle, part is my filler cap, top of fuel pipe on car, it is also has residual glycerol build-up on it as seen in the last part which is the rag after I give it a quick wipe

Richard or dgs, did you or indeed other members who make and use B100 in their cars / vans looked at the top of the filler pipe?

Dave

[RichardP]

Got 5 cars running on B100 for a minimum of 7 years and not seen anything at the top of the filler pipe.

[dgs]

Hi CanidrivE, It wasn't soap the acid makes, it hydrolyses soap to free fatty acids, so if the soap level is unknown then the ffa level is also unknown, so not really good to use acid in those circumstances.

Only thing I have ever done as a check on any residuals in the bio is cut a filter case open. Last one (from memory) was so clean I could have used it for several more years. I water wash and centrifuge the fuel after drying. Any that isn't fuged gets filtered with blue workshop roll ( bio passes this easily and the assumed pore size is roughly 0.1 micron ) Any reading this that use 10" filters wrap them with blue roll, works a treat.

If you get clear water from your last wash you shouldnt have any residuals in your fuel either coffee grounds or glycerol.

I remember your original post about the coffee grounds but have no idea what they could be.

[WesleyB]

Does B-100 evaporate? Biodiesel has an odor .  It's not good to breath its' vapor . The metabolic products of methyl biodiesel  in the body probably are toxic .  The fact it has an odor shows it has a vapor pressure . Biodiesel 100% does evaporate slowly at atmospheric pressure . 

[countrypaul]

To put Wesley's comments into a little more context:

Methyl Palmitate has a vapour pressure of 0.15 to 1.1 Pa at 25 - 45C (and methyl stearate alot lower still)
Methyl Oleate has a vapour pressure of about 1.3 kPa at 20C.

Water has a vapour pressure of about 3.16kPa at 25C and 101kPa at 100C.

Normal atmospheric pressure is about 101 kPa

So Biodiesel will evaporate, but very slowly and may oxidise faster than it evaporates.

The LD50 on rats for methyl oleate is about 2g/kg, so it would take around 2g to kill a 1Kg rat

[CanidrivE]

The photograph on the left is the filter from my 2000 plated Frontera 2.2dti, that's the one that was laying round back of garage and done it's thing.

Middle and right photograph is the filter from my 2001 Citroen 2.5 non turbo camper van,   
This van came to me last year, had not been serviced in 5 years so I done brakes, oil and filters, that fuel filter done 1296 miles.  Yes, I do know about the cleaning effect from B100 bio and I did have the fuel tank half out to replace the fuel level sensor float switch.

I am getting worried about the fuel and what it is doing with the filters

Going back to dgs post, his second one, using blue workshop roll, just as a point of note from me, from my holding tank the final filter I use is a 10 inch 0.1 micron into the jerry cans into fuel tanks

Dave