I've done two batches using the Dr Pepper method and have a few questions.

When washing, the water clears up by the 5th wash, no problems there. It's got a fair bit of white scum floating around in the water, I presume this is soap? Only becomes a problem when I got to drain it. Turn the bottle upside down to empty the water and the scum sticks to the sides of the bottle. I thought about letting the bottle settle upside down but it'll still stick to the sides. Is syphoning the bio out my only option?

Dried one batch so far, though I couldn't just leave it out in the sun. I'm in Melbourne to start with (what sun?), window sills on north facing windows are too narrow to sit the bottle on and don't want to leave it on the floor opened with two cats running around all day. So I cheated and just heated it up to 40 degrees for 10 minutes in the saucepan. Will that have dried it properly? Certainly cleared up and got darker.

And finally, possibly most importantly, how do I get the search function to only display threads containing all the words I searched for? I checked the FAQ but couldn't find anything.

Captn,
Here is the answer to your search blues:
Searching the Biofuels Forum using Google
This will allow you to use the fully featured search engine of Google, to seek the answers to your questions.

Hi,

Something I found useful when doing small batches was to use a 2 litre orange juice type bottle and screwing the top from a squeezy sauce bottle on it. Do the wash and let it stand upside down. Then just turn the cap and squeeze the bottle and the water comes out. If you use a soft drink bottle you can use the top off of a popper type drink bottle. Just don't let the bottle go and allow air to sucked back up into the bottle while you have water or glycerine in there or you'll need to let it settle again.

Regards, Chris

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Thanks Tony, that's going to come in very handy.

Jasper, it's not so much a problem getting the water out, I've been turning it upside down slowly and using a paper towel to block the hole then squeezing the bottle while releasing a bit of pressure from the towel. The problem is the soap sticking to the sides of the bottle and not coming out with the water. This is with a 2 litre coke bottle.

Captn,
There is the problem You should be using a Dr Pepper bottle
They are scientifically designed to relaase the soap from the sides of the bottle.

Keep smiling,
Tony

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There is no way known I could stomach two litres off the stuff if I could even find it!

I ended up grabbing a cheapo syphon pump and taking the bio from the top, I'll give it another wash or two later. Surely there has to be something wrong here? I've done another batch and will see how that comes out. Does soap production differ between using NaOH and KOH?

Datto if you could post a pic of the problematic stuff that may help.

Firstly as your wash water is clear I'd say the white stuff is not soap as if it where it would mix into the water.

What type of oil did you use? New/used, conola, cottonseed, sunflour, palm?
Also how much methanol, NaOH/KOH did you use?
It may be the first signs of gelling. I am thinking it could be a little cool at this time of year in Melbourne.

You could try adding fairly hot water aand give it a good shake. If it is bio gelling this should melt it all until it cools down again.