Hello everyone,

I am new at this so please bear with me.
I have a few questions that maybe some of you can help me with:

Here is the senario:
I have an endless supply of tallow and a endless supply of ethonal
the Ethonal has been tested and is 80% proof
so I have made a batch using the following recipe
1 Litre of freshly rendered pig fat.
200ML of Ethonal the 80% proof stuff
5 grams of lye (caustic soda)

I heated the oil up to 265 F to remove any water from the oil
mixed up the Ethonal and Lye let the fat cool down to 135 F
mixed in the Ethonal & lye solution with the oil stirred it for 30 mins
at 135 F and let it sit for 8 hours at a room temp of approx 65 F,
came back to check it out later, however at the bottom there was a dark clear like liquid I am assuming that is the glycerol, and on the top
I had a light yellow coloured solid gel.

I do know that BD from tallow gels at around 60 F
I have been reading that washing the stuff is required to remove the gel.
I also know that water is a killer in the reaction.

But what I need to know is, If there is something I have missed to cause this problem.

I boiled the tallow to 265 F to remove the water in it if any was present
I mixed the ethonal and lye accordinly with the oil in varying amounts
per batch but I still get a thick light yellow gel ontop everytime.

Would bubble washing the BD after it has been mixed and settled
remove this gel? and or is there something I am missing in the process
to create this gel?

If anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

DWE,
Welcome to the forum, While there are few people here using Ethanol in the biodiesel reaction, you may get some replies.

?Regardiong your problem, you stated that you used: . This is your problem.
80 Proof is only 40% Ethanol. The rest is mostly water.
What is on the bottom is possibly most of the water from the Ethanol.

Try searching the internet on "Ethanol" and "biodiesel" and see how you could do it better.

regards,
Tony

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Thank you for the quick response!

OK,That is what I was thinking just needed it confirmed by
a more experinced processors , so the water in the ethonal is causing the gel
and the ethonal used in a batch of BD must be very dry and be at least
99% ethonal or 200 Proof, correct?