Acetone to aid reaction !

[Dickjotec]

Not very scientific but I did a Dr Pepper. 1L oil at 30c 200ml meth with 4 .5g NaOH dissolved in it. the left hand bottle had 100ml acetone. shook both for 30 seconds then left. The acetone started to react quicker but not appreciably so.
left overnight in a warm place.
The results are below

As I hope you can see the acetone has produced less glyc and a better conversion.

I am now demething a 160L batch which has had less chemicals than normal 1.6 L acetone and the first settle produced half the usual a amount of meth with a drop out of 3.
Will report after it has completed.

[Dickjotec]

I have completed a batch using acetone and while it could just be an unusual batch I am very impressed.
Normal 2 stage for me.
Dry oil by heating and settling. 160L in processor.
Stage 1
30l meth 5.5 base 900g NaOH
1hour mix
Stage 2
Fallout typically 3 so about 280g
Meth about 9L

About 35L of glyc and 145L bio and 14L reclaimed meth WBD

Today
25L meth. 800 NaOH
1.5L acetone
Fallout 1.5
5L meth 130g NaOH
Good pass

Glyc 25L bio 160L meth reclaimed 8L just from bio.

So 10+ L less glyc 15+L more bio. Next time I will cut the chemicals down more and then start adjusting the times. Very impressed so far.
The glyc has not set yet and I suspect that there is meth in it. Next time I will WBD.
Dick

[1958steveflying]

I have completed a batch using acetone and while it could just be an unusual batch I am very impressed.

Today
25L meth. 800 NaOH
1.5L acetone
Fallout 1.5
5L meth 130g NaOH
Good pass

Glyc 25L bio 160L meth reclaimed 8L just from bio.

So 10+ L less glyc 15+L more bio. Next time I will cut the chemicals down more and then start adjusting the times. Very impressed so far.
The glyc has not set yet and I suspect that there is meth in it. Next time I will WBD.
Dick

That looks a good result Dick, nice one.

[Carrington]

Hi dick
Could do a test with the Glyc and warm it up in a glass jar to see if vapours come of (could be meth ).
The use of acetone should prevent the meth going into the Glyc  , if this is so then we could definitely use les meth as well as catalyst.
I think this is why we're getting less Glyc as it contains much less meth

Paul

[Dickjotec]

Hi Paul,
Will give it a go tomorrow.
 ATM I am thinking that the acetone may well stop the meth going into the glyc when acetone is used at high percentages, eg 25%, but it is still in there at low percentages, eg 1%, which is what I used.
Dick

[Carrington]

I've just finished a full 3.5k batch with only 3L of acetone and had fantastic results with reaction time and also 1stage to completion (would normally need 2stage )
Going to do some test using 13% meth to see how it goes

Paul

[Dickjotec]

Very interesting less than .1% acetone makes a significant improvement. Have you tested your glyc?

[Carrington]

Not till the morning . Supprisingly the Glyc in the sample a took settled much quicker and also much clearer than normal leading me to believe the sg diference of both products is greater than normal so will also be testing sg of Glyc as well.

Sorry edited to make more sence

[Dickjotec]

The glyc from mine was clearer as well, not as black, almost like a thicker dark bio.

[Carrington]

The glycerine phase of the Glyc by-product is light honey coloured

[Head Womble]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but surely the increase of bio is due to the meths stying in the bio not the gly.

This could be checked by demething both bio and gly, them measuring the bio, gly and the, well lets refer to it as condensate as we don't know the concentration of meths to acetone.

[Dickjotec]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but surely the increase of bio is due to the meths stying in the bio not the gly.

This could be checked by demething both bio and gly, them measuring the bio, gly and the, well lets refer to it as condensate as we don't know the concentration of meths to acetone.

I demethed for the usual amount of time and only got 8L where I would normally get 12+ so I don't think it is in the bio. Next batch in 3 weeks I will WBD Which will answer if it is in the glyc.

[Carrington]

Yes I think you are right mark
If this is the case then if we can get the meth down to 13ish% then the condensate should be mostly acetone hopefully.

I think there's lots of work till we get it perfected but just knowing that a small amount makes a good difference means that most test done using acetone should be beneficial.

Going on results so far i think we can say that we can reduce the quantity that's reported in the research paper.

 

[1958steveflying]

Yes I think you are right mark
If this is the case then if we can get the meth down to 13ish% then the condensate should be mostly acetone hopefully.

I think there's lots of work till we get it perfected but just knowing that a small amount makes a good difference means that most test done using acetone should be beneficial.

Going on results so far i think we can say that we can reduce the quantity that's reported in the research paper.

I think it will be a trade between Acetone and reaction temperature.

[Carrington]

I think that as most people dry oil first then react i don't think temp is a issue , if we can get the meth/ catalyst down and speed up reaction then that would be a good use of the acetone.
Maybe we could work out the different quantities required for each improvement so people could choose which way they wanted to go