Processing whites/lard/palm that is mixed with diesel & kero

[julesandtash]

Hi all,
I have acquired 600 litres (in 20 litre cubies) of gloopy but liquid material. It was all the whites that somebody collected from filtering oil to run their car on veg.
To get more oil out of it, at some point they heated it all with some diesel and kerosene added and let it cool which, I am told, liberated some more nice oil on top and some water at the bottom which they drained off.

So, I now have cubies of viscous liquid that has a distinct smell of diesel about it but looks like just molten palm oil.

I only intend using this in my heating boiler so there are no concerns about having red diesel or kero mixed in with the bio in my cars tanks.

I am just wondering how to go about processing it.
Has anybody got any experience of processing something like this.
Logic says that the hydrocarbon oils will just stay throughout the process and end up in the bio but I am concerned about them blocking the conversion process.

I am thnking of a multi stage (three or four stages) using a little methylate and methanol each time.

Potentially I have 3 months worth of virtually free heating fuel if I can get it to convert. It doesn't even need to be 100% conversion since it will be in a tank held at around 20C.

[Keef]

I'd have thought a good glyc wash and a few Dr Peppers was the way to go.

[Carrington]

Hi jule's
It's not something I have tried but I seem to remember reading somewhere that you react as normal after doing a conversion 90/10test.
Not sure about doing a high temp reaction maybe just go for a 55c but leave mixing for longer.
Or another way try and evaporate the derv/kero of with heat and bubbles through your condenser 
I think I would try the first method on a small scale first.

Paul

[Julian]

I've processed whites/water/sludge cut with petrol.  I held it at 65°C for several hours whilst bubbling in my fat melting tank that's not a gas cylinder.  I then processed at normal temperatures and it smelt of petrol throughout, so I guess I hadn't removed all of it.  The bio turned out fine though and didn't seem to smell.

Different with Dino, I'd guess.  I don't think you'll have a lot of luck bubbling it off.  I'd just have a go at processing normally but perhaps doing a DR Pepper first as Paul suggests.

[Tony]

My WVO storage tank was an ex central heating one, so some kero ended up in the WVO before processing - but it presented no issues at all in the conversion process.

[julesandtash]

Cheers guys,
I think I will get a batch of bio done with nice liquid oil so I have plenty of good glyc. Then  I will glyc wash this stuff and do some Dr pepper tests.
I will try to remember to take some pics along the way as it may help somebody in a similar position in the future

[julesandtash]

Well the Dr Pepper tests are done - two stage process  followed by titrated water wash. At the end I ended up with nice clear biodiesel which still has a smell of Kero about it. Interestingly the glyc didn't have much of a kero smell about it suggesting that most, if not all, of the kero remained in the bio.

It would appear that, as suggested, the hydrocarbons don't affect the process and remain all the way through (which is a good reason not to use it in the cars).

I am hoping to do a full sized batch over the coming weekend.

[Tony]

As we thought though always good to confirm.  I guess for the 3/27 Kero is soluble in Meth.

Those hydrocarbons don't seem to cause a problem with 50:50 water test either from what I've seen of re-testing bio that has had 5% petrol added.

[julesandtash]

Kero is just about colourless anyway so it would be hard to see if any had dropped out. Besdies, the volume would be very small - I doubt the original oil had a lot of kero in it otherwise it would not be so gloopy to start with.

[K.H]

Now try it with engine oil,not fun!

[Carrington]

Now try it with engine oil,not fun!

I once separated wvo and WMO using sulphuric acid and got a really good defined split. The EA still wouldn't let me take the material as I didn't have the right license to take WMO.
Lost 10m3 that day