Hello

After a weekend of experimenting with my first batch(s), I'm left feeling beaten and a failure. Attached is a pic for you to amuse yourself with. If after you regather yourself and if you have some helpful advice, please share it.

I Followed Dr Pepper technique with NaOH

All bottles got a very good seperation as described. Washing is where the trouble started.



Bottle on left is used cottonseed oil after one very very gentle wash 300ml water room temp. (did boil first to 120c)

Bottle in middle is new veg oil after 2 very gentle washes and 1 less gentle.

Bottle on the right is new veg oil after 4 gentle and 1 vigorous wash.

I did the 3/27 on the bottle on right as it looked the best and it wasn't close to a pass, globs of oil appeared.

Will time help or should I give up and start drinking heavily instead??

Thanks

Hello Marc, congratulations on your success!
If it is after 4 PM it is certainly time to start drinking!
All your photo's look normal.
I would not be too concerned about the 3/27 test at this stage.

All it takes is faith, repeated washes and drying.
I would dry the bottle on the right, in my way of thinking it is washed enough.
A quick way to dry it is to Decant the biodiesel only into a pan and heat to not more than 100deg C or until the biodiesel clears while constantly stirring. Take care for popping that may spit oil onto you. I use the thermometer to stir with.
You will see that most of the water has settled to the bottom of the pan.
As the biodiesel cools it is likely to go cloudy.
If it does just carefully pour the biodiesel into another pan taking care to leave the settled water behind and repeat the heating step.
It should now stay clear as it cools the second time.

Tilly

Thanks for your reassurance.

Just to clarify, I should put the BD from the bottle on the right into a pan???

Is this pan able to be used for food again?? The wifes not to happy with all her kitchen measuring equipment being taken into the lab (garage) throughout the weekend....

And just leave the other 2 bottles to settle over a couple of days???

Thanks again

Marc

Hello Marc
Contrary to popular belief, everything you use can be used for food again provided it is well washed.
Methanol, NaOH and KOH are all easily removed by water washing and biodiesel easily removes with Water and soap.
And what she does not know will not hurt you.

Yes, the bottle on the right with the fairly clear water is ready for drying in my estimation.
The others require more washing.

I'm back on track thanks to your great advice.

The bottle on the right is now totally clear (urine colour), I can read the newspaper through it (as one test I read suggested).

Hope I'm not out of line asking you one more question. I've been reading forums and searching google all weekend (getting a lot of contradictory info and confusion) and there's no substitute for directly asking someone who know's what they're talking about.

Is a good test for that bottle now to put 150ml of water and shake vigorously a hope for instant separation or should I do another 3/27 or would you just put it straight in the tank. (keeping in mind that there's only about 400 ml of BD left)

Thanks

Hello Marc

I am glad to hear things are going well.
I will just make a note of those three batches in my royalties book.

You are correct, there is an absolute wealth of inaccurate information about making biodiesel on the internet.
One of the worst sites is the Journey to Forever, lots of nice pictures but the actual information is not to be trusted

The "Shake-em up" test is not a reliable test for conversion.
The 3/27 test has become the defacto homebrewers quality test.
I personally saved the first litre of biodiesel I made, but if you want to use it, just wait until it cools and if it is still clear I would just put it in the tank.
I never do quality tests on production batches.

Thank you again

You deserve all the royalties you can get...

I might be a bit short of 53,000 ltrs this year as it's taken me all weekend to make about 800ml....

Journey to ever site is where I've been looking at processor plans, but as you say, might give that a miss and design my own with help from this forum and from my grand father who knows EVERYTHING.

I can have that beer now (also homebrew) better not get the to two mixed up eh...

Hello Marc
Yes, well it goes quickly.
800ml today, 49,000 litres next week and you are wondering which of my Numbered Swiss bank accounts to use.