The lazyman process

[Julian]

Interesting, Chug.  Do you know how residual methanol was measured?

[Jamesrl]

Interesting, Chug.  Do you know how residual methanol was measured?

Residual/dissolved glycol would need a GC I'd have thought.

[Head Womble]

For the record, I've just done a 10/90 on the finished bio and, despite the additional catalyst being added before demeth, the result is the same as the previous test.

So, not withstanding the speed of over dosing, I think I'll go back to a two stage process.

At least you now know why it was hard to dry.

[Chug]

Interesting, Chug.  Do you know how residual methanol was measured?

It was done by Frank (neutral on infopop) and he used GC test results and Sam Ley turned it into the graphs.

[bradburypizza]

Hi just come across this thread and found it interesting as the the last 2 batches I've done (80 litre) I've used 8 instead of 7 grams of KOH for the first stage no titration after glycerol prewashing and have only had 0.5% dropout so first stage 12.8 litre methanol 640 grams koh second stage 0.8 litre methanol 32 grams koh.I then water wash through a misting nozzle and overflow system usually overnight then drain the rest of the water and dry through a spray bar which usually only takes about 1 hour at 75 degrees get clear 50/50 test and its been giving clear full conversion on the 10/90 test.maybe if I up the methanol to say 14 litres and koh at 8.5 grammes it'll go clear on the first dropout test think I'll try it next batch.

Tony Deli's are quite tolerant of slight amounts of unreacted oil anyway considered leaving it at first stage with .5 dropout what's you thoughts about that?

[Tony]

5% dropout has never cause me any problems,a nd is not a level I would worry about.

The way I see it is this, triglycerides are funny shaped molecules that like to tangle and gum because of their three arms.  Fatty Acid Methyl Esters are like a pile of bent sticks, not much chance of tangling them.  But if you have a few three armed molecules in a sea of sticks, they're also unlikely to tangle either.

I think this is the premice by which blending with diesel/petrol works too.  So if you think your engine would be happy on 95% diesel and 5% veg then it should be happy enough with 95% converted bio.

On the other hand, if you have a sensitive fuel system this might not be acceptable.

Given some people run them on 90% veg (I used to run mine on 30% SVO) I wouldn't sweat it!

The only catch is moisture, if there are mono/diglycerides present from partial conversion, this is more of an issue as emulsions can form.  On the other hand, if you water wash this kind of fuel these will get flushed away anyway.