Waterless washing

[joe Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close joe]

Hi all the following is from the ebay Biodiesel reactor item. This is one of the questions and answer. Is this a method of waterless washing. I've heard of this before but never really understood it. It it true that if you heat or bubble freshly made biodiesel the methanol will evaporate off and the soap will fall to the bottom?

Q.Hi,you mentioned in a previous response to a question that your system leaves no waste water to dispose of. How is this achieved with your gear and are there any quality problems associated. Cheers, jason. 25-Sep-06

A: The only reason that soap and water stay suspended in biodiesel is because of the presence of methanol. Evaporate it off by heating and bubbling in an open top drum and the soap drops to the bottom. No wash water, no emulsions. Beginning to end in under 24 hours. There's nothing special about my drums, they're a simple stand pipe arrangement.

[tillyfromparadise Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close tillyfromparadise]

Re: Waterless washing

Hello Joe,

I know almost nothing about waterless Washing, but the phrase makes me think about "Fighting for Peace"

Anyway, there is a whole boat load of information about this at This location which I have not read.

Tilly

[Tony From West Oz Vice Chairperson of WARFA Find all posts View Profile Close Tony From West Oz]

Re: Waterless washing

I feel that this does not come under the category of "washing", but I have heard that by removing the methanol, residual byproduct and soaps will drop out of solution.
There should be no water in the biodiesel, unless it was added to the biodiesel.
Any water in the oil feedstock would casue significant production of soaps and cause poor conversion of the oil into biodiesel.