| Re: 7,0 When Using KOH ?
The reason for needing 5g NaOH (Sodium Hydroxide)or 7g KOH (Potassium Hydroxide) is that that amount of caustic is required to "catalyse" the reaction, making oil into biodiesel.
As Tilly has said, purity considerations will require that the KOH needs to be increased to account for 90% purity KOH. Similarly, if using NaOH which has degraded due to exposure to air will require test batches to determine the correct amount to use.
Soap formation in the biodiesel reaction is from 2 main causes:
1. Neutralisation fo the FFAs
2. Presence of water in the oil (including a little released during 1. above)
If you have washed your product, there should be no soap in it.
What you are seeing is likely to be biodiesel solidifying, due to the temperature of the biodiesel & the type of oil used in its manufacture. Biodiesel made from oul having a large proportion of tallow or hydrogenated palm oil makes biodiesel with high melting point esters present. These can solidify at various temperatures.
Once the biodiesel has been dried, warm it up and see if the cloudiness or solidification clears. If so, it is most likely due to high melting point methyl esters, solidifying at the ambient temperature.
This is not a bad thing as these high meltingp oint esters have a higher energy than the lower MP esters. For winter operation, you may wish to filter the high melting point esters out so that you can use the fuel at those temperatures.
Keep the solid biodiesel as it will melt when the season changes, providing a supply of high quality fuel for summer use.
I hope this helps,
Tony
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