Soaps/Acetone

[nigelb]

Positive/negative...it's a position of perspective.

[nathanrobo]

from the start of washing to usable fuel..if I was in a desperate rush would be 36-48hrs. However, I always have fuel in stock and I've never been in a position where I've needed to rush things. I always plan my fuel making well in advance. Rushing fuel production will ultimately lead to errors and mistakes. It ain't a race!

Nige

No need to defend it... It is what it is!  Just wondered if it would work for the way I want to do things.

[nigelb]

from the start of washing to usable fuel..if I was in a desperate rush would be 36-48hrs. However, I always have fuel in stock and I've never been in a position where I've needed to rush things. I always plan my fuel making well in advance. Rushing fuel production will ultimately lead to errors and mistakes. It ain't a race!

Nige

No need to defend it... It is what it is!  Just wondered if it would work for the way I want to do things.

Water washing is a very effective way of reducing the soaps to virtually nothing if done correctly...ie gently. Too many people have got into difficulty by rushing and being too aggressive with the bubbles. As I undersand, the titrated acid water wash is extremely effective at removing soaps quickly. Not a method I've adopted yet.

I think the only way it will help with the way you want to things is if you wash gently.

[Head Womble]

I've been doing some more tests today (well I've been playing anyway).

Counting drips of acetone it seems that 1ml = 37 drips.

Now working on my previous test I used 4 drips in 250ml of bio,
so 16 drips to 1L,
so 1ml treats as near as dammit 2.25L.

The second wash (with just water) is settling over night, so tomorrow I'll do the third wash with 80ml of acetone added and post the results.

[Head Womble]

I must add that the initial dose of 4 drips in 250ml of bio was just a starting point,
we may find that this can be increased/decreased with further testing.

[photoman290]

rather than counting drips i think it would be a lot easier and more accurate to weight it and make an adjustment for the SG. the scales used for titration should be good enough. drips come in different sizes so one persons 4 drips will be different to someone else's 4 drips.

[1958steveflying]

Thanks Mark for taking the idea on board and testing.

With my original test sample the water side is still very cloudy and has not cleared the way the water does on a normal 50/50 and has fairly large lumpy white bits on the split line . Nathan commented that the Bio seems to be less viscous than normal too !

Maybe this has pulled out HMPE's too or even something that causes waxing,  so temperature test's would be good but we would have to compare treated back to back with untreated Bio from the same batch for accurate comparison.

I will be pulling a few litres of Raw bio from my next batch for playing with and will use your drip calculations for treating the full batch, I intend to add it with the first water wash after acid neutralisation.

edited more viscous to less viscous as pointed out by Nathan.

[nathanrobo]

Nathan commented that the Bio seems to be more viscous than normal too !

Steve, did you mean that it appeared to have a lower viscosity - thinner?

[1958steveflying]

Mate my brain is going... DUH.... less viscous... thinner... runnier... lol

[Head Womble]

Some results for you.

Just before going to bed I decided to add 20ml (1/2 of the intended dose for the last wash) of acetone to the batch (this was the second wash) and put the pump on a timer for 1hr.

This morning I took a sample and did a 50/50 (250ml/250ml), this had a clear slit and clear water,
I added 4 drips of acetone and it stayed clear,
I tested it for soaps with a result of 42.56 

To recap
180l batch, two stage non titration, clear 10/90 pass.

titrated acid wash with 30L of water, pumped for 3 hr, settled of 3hr.

second wash with 45l of water, pumped for 2hr, 20ml of acetone added and pumped for a further 1hr,
settled for 12hr, tests done.

The batch is now drying.

I have now run out of IPA so can't do any further tests for a while.

[Head Womble]

rather than counting drips i think it would be a lot easier and more accurate to weight it and make an adjustment for the SG. the scales used for titration should be good enough. drips come in different sizes so one persons 4 drips will be different to someone else's 4 drips.

This is why I counted the amount of drips per 1ml and have used ml in my posted calculations, we all have syringes.

[Head Womble]

Thanks Mark for taking the idea on board and testing.

With my original test sample the water side is still very cloudy and has not cleared the way the water does on a normal 50/50 and has fairly large lumpy white bits on the split line . Nathan commented that the Bio seems to be less viscous than normal too !

Maybe this has pulled out HMPE's too or even something that causes waxing,  so temperature test's would be good but we would have to compare treated back to back with untreated Bio from the same batch for accurate comparison.

I will be pulling a few litres of Raw bio from my next batch for playing with and will use your drip calculations for treating the full batch, I intend to add it with the first water wash after acid neutralisation.

edited more viscous to less viscous as pointed out by Nathan.

I'm happy to do the tests Steve, thanks for posting your ideas.

My first 50/50 with added acetone did partly clear but was not as clear as the 50/50 without the acetone, I had no lumpy white bits on the split line.
Maybe you had more soaps present, or it may just be different feed stock.

[1958steveflying]

I have now run out of IPA so can't do any further tests for a while.

As we are testing with Acetone hopefully you mean you have run out of that and not IPA    lol.

[1958steveflying]

Some results for you.

Just before going to bed I decided to add 20ml (1/2 of the intended dose for the last wash) of acetone to the batch (this was the second wash) and put the pump on a timer for 1hr.

This morning I took a sample and did a 50/50 (250ml/250ml), this had a clear slit and clear water,
I added 4 drips of acetone and it stayed clear,
I tested it for soaps with a result of 42.56 

To recap
180l batch, two stage non titration, clear 10/90 pass.

titrated acid wash with 30L of water, pumped for 3 hr, settled of 3hr.

second wash with 45l of water, pumped for 2hr, 20ml of acetone added and pumped for a further 1hr,
settled for 12hr, tests done.

The batch is now drying.

I have now run out of IPA so can't do any further tests for a while.

So does that mean using the Acetone has completed the job in less washes than it would normally take Mark ?

[Head Womble]

I have now run out of IPA so can't do any further tests for a while.

As we are testing with Acetone hopefully you mean you have run out of that and not IPA    lol.

IPA is for the soap tests.