Unconfigured Ad Widget

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

My Ambient/ Room temperature Biodiesel Production

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • My Ambient/ Room temperature Biodiesel Production

    My Ambient/ Room temperature Biodiesel Production



    Lately there has been a bit of discussion about making biodiesel at room temperature- without heating.
    To my great amazement, there are one or two people on this forum who did not know, and still apparently refuse to accept that you can make biodiesel at room temperature if you wish to.

    In the early days of biodiesel production, there were several “commercial” producers who routinely made their commercial biodiesel at room temperature.
    I have always heated in the past, originally using solar heating and for the last few years I have used an immersion heating element scavenged from an electric stove- but it is certainly not required.

    I started this years biodiesel production this week and have decided to forego heating and do all the reactions at ambient temperature.
    I have 2- 150 litre total capacity reactors that are mixed with a drill and paint mixer through the top cover as well as a ½ hp “Orange" Regenerative Turbine Pump recirculating from bottom to top.

    I do not routinely titrate, the oil is always around 1KOH titration.
    My car does not require high conversion biodiesel so I make no attempt to pass the Warnqvist test.
    My formula is 130 litres WVO, 14% methanol (18 litres), 9.2g KOH per litre of WVO (1.2kg).

    I have made two batches so far.

    My reactors sit outside in the sun and I run the reaction in the middle of the day when things have warmed up and I have returned home.
    Both reactions have performed flawlessly- I mixed for two hours in both instances and I had clear separation of the byproduct and biodiesel.

    I checked the temperature of the mixture in the processor a few minutes after beginning mixing after it has stabilized.

    On the first day the temperature in the reactor stabilized at 47C- On the second day the temperature stabilized at 45C. That is very close to what I would usually heat to anyway.

    I have another batch ready to go this afternoon when I get home.
    At present the temperature of the WVO in the reactor is 23C
    I will update this afternoon

    tillyfromparadise
    Senior Member
    Last edited by tillyfromparadise; 13 October 2017, 09:47 AM.

  • #2
    Re: My Ambient/ Room temperature Biodiesel Production

    Tilly, Can you please try the reaction with oil that has not warmed up to 40+°C? How about waiting until you get home before adding the oil to your reactor (oil that has been stored out of the sun). This will make for a more valuable result for us in far less Tropical locations.
    Our overnight temperatures were as low a 14°C last night and that was warm for this time of year in Perth.
    Life is a journey, with problems to solve, lessons to learn, but most of all, experiences to enjoy.

    Current Vehicles in stable:
    '06 Musso Sports 4X4 Manual Crew Cab tray back.
    '04 Rexton 4X4 Automatic SUV
    '2014 Toyota Prius (on ULP) - Wife's car

    Previous Vehicles:
    '90 Mazda Capella. (2000 - 2003) My first Fatmobile. Converted to fun on veggie oil with a 2 tank setup.
    '80 Mercedes 300D. 2 tank conversion [Sold]
    '84 Mercedes 300D. 1 tank, no conversion. Replaced engine with rebuilt OM617A turbodiesel engine. Finally had good power. Engine donor for W123 coupe. (body parted out and carcass sold for scrap.)
    '85 Mercedes Benz W123 300CD Turbodiesel
    '99 Mercedes W202 C250 Turbodiesel (my darling Wife's car)[sold]
    '98 Mercedes W202 C250 Turbodiesel (my car)[sold]
    '06 Musso Sports Crew Cab well body. [Head gasket blew!]
    '04 Rexton SUV 2.9L Turbodiesel same as Musso - Our Family car.
    '06 Musso sports Crew Cab Trayback - My hack (no air cond, no heater).

    Searching the Biofuels Forum using Google
    Adding images and/or documents to your posts

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: My Ambient/ Room temperature Biodiesel Production

      If I didn't heat my WVO in the winter it would be solid, so its not going to work for me.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: My Ambient/ Room temperature Biodiesel Production

        Hi smithw,
        Originally posted by smithw View Post
        If I didn't heat my WVO in the winter it would be solid, so its not going to work for me.
        That is the one overriding stipulation. Everything MUST remain liquid. That is why I ONLY make biodiesel in the spring/ summer.
        In any event, I have so much WVO available, I give away any oil that will solidify in the winter.

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: My Ambient/ Room temperature Biodiesel Production

          Hi Tony,

          Originally posted by Tony From West Oz View Post
          Tilly, Can you please try the reaction with oil that has not warmed up to 40+°C? How about waiting until you get home before adding the oil to your reactor (oil that has been stored out of the sun). This will make for a more valuable result for us in far less Tropical locations.
          Our overnight temperatures were as low a 14°C last night and that was warm for this time of year in Perth.
          I did the testing concerning this years ago. As long as everything remains liquid, temperature is not a limiting factor in the production of biodiesel.
          However, I will try to set one off first thing in the morning on Sunday when the oil should be around 20C- 25C.

          I arrived home around 11:30 this morning and set the first batch off at around noon.
          Prior to adding the methoxide I mixed the oil with the drill to make sure there was no stratification of the temperature in the oil. The temperature of the oil had risen from 23C this morning to around 31C at noon.
          After adding the methoxide and mixing, the temperature stabilized at around 41C.

          At about 2:00pm I performed the same procedure with a second batch and found that before adding the methoxide the temperature of the oil was around 33C.
          After mixing in the methoxide the temperature of the mixture increased to around 41C and stabilized at that temperature.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: My Ambient/ Room temperature Biodiesel Production

            FYI my method can be used in the middle of winter with the temp at 8 degrees. The biggest problem I have is with the recirculating pump that does the mixing - at that temp it struggles with the viscosity, but once the reaction begins and the viscosity drops you hear it change pitch and Bob's your dad's brother..

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: My Ambient/ Room temperature Biodiesel Production

              Hi Mark,

              Originally posted by Mark View Post
              FYI my method can be used in the middle of winter with the temp at 8 degrees.
              Other than taking a lot of time and using a huge amount of KOH, there is nothing special about your method. As I said in my above post " As long as everything remains liquid, temperature is not a limiting factor in the production of biodiesel."
              During my testing I cooled the WVO and Methoxide down to around 4C and successfully produced a batch of biodiesel

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: My Ambient/ Room temperature Biodiesel Production

                Hi Mark,

                Other than taking a lot of time and using a huge amount of KOH, there is nothing special about your method.
                There isn't? Then why this?
                Lately there has been a bit of discussion about making biodiesel at room temperature- without heating.
                As I said in my above post " As long as everything remains liquid, temperature is not a limiting factor in the production of biodiesel."
                During my testing I cooled the WVO and Methoxide down to around 4C and successfully produced a batch of biodiesel
                Did you? You didn't mention that above - you were talking about 23-47 degrees.

                So now all the threads on this site that talk about heaters can be removed and you'll be changing the "Dr Pepper" method to take out the bit where it says to heat it?

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: My Ambient/ Room temperature Biodiesel Production

                  Presumably Tilly the process you did at 4degsC (based on the rule of thumb you always mention) took in excess of 24 hours mixing to convert it.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: My Ambient/ Room temperature Biodiesel Production

                    FYI the other advantage of my method is that because of the very high catalyst concentration, a stirrer is not required. An el cheapo pool pump from EBay (set to recirculate) provides sufficient shear to make 1000L at a time

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: My Ambient/ Room temperature Biodiesel Production

                      Hi Mark,

                      Originally posted by Mark View Post
                      FYI the other advantage of my method....
                      To be candid, so far your method has offered no advantage at all.
                      Disadvantages of your method includes, but is not limited to, taking days to perform a batch instead of the hours in the standard procedure and using a huge amount of KOH compared to the standard procedure. Your method also does not producing high conversion biodiesel.




                      ...because of the very high catalyst concentration, a stirrer is not required. An el cheapo pool pump from EBay (set to recirculate) provides sufficient shear to make 1000L at a time
                      smithy claims he routinely performs the standard single stage procedure in under an hour at room temperature using only a pump for mixing, and as an added bonus, unlike the biodiesel you produce, his biodiesel actually passes the 3/27 quality test
                      tillyfromparadise
                      Senior Member
                      Last edited by tillyfromparadise; 14 October 2017, 10:03 PM.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: My Ambient/ Room temperature Biodiesel Production

                        Originally posted by Dr Mark View Post
                        FYI the other advantage of my method is that because of the very high catalyst concentration, a stirrer is not required. An el cheapo pool pump from EBay (set to recirculate) provides sufficient shear to make 1000L at a time

                        Thanks for the link, Ill have to try this.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: My Ambient/ Room temperature Biodiesel Production

                          Hi Everyone,

                          I would like to point out that three threads down there is a thread dedicated to discussing the Imisidies method of production.
                          Please use that thread when discussing the Imisidies method

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: My Ambient/ Room temperature Biodiesel Production

                            The thread I addressed was transesterification at reduced temperature (not put exactly that way). Drying the reaction mixture with calcium oxide does that. It's a good idea to develop, it works.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: My Ambient/ Room temperature Biodiesel Production

                              Hi Tony,

                              Originally posted by Tony From West Oz View Post
                              Tilly, Can you please try the reaction with oil that has not warmed up to 40+°C? How about waiting until you get home before adding the oil to your reactor (oil that has been stored out of the sun). This will make for a more valuable result for us in far less Tropical locations.
                              We have had lot of rain and cold weather lately. The high yesterday was around 20C with lots of rain and a low last night around 10C.

                              First thing this morning I swam put to my oil storage and decanted into my reactor 130litres of oil taken from an inside the stack position 200 litre drum that was not in the sun.
                              The temperature of the WVO was around 21C
                              After mixing and allowing the temperature to settle (about 10 minutes), the temperature increased to 32C

                              I will probably mix for about two hours and then set off the second batch.

                              It is very wet outside

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X