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reclaiming contaminated BD?

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  • reclaiming contaminated BD?

    Due to some sloppy handling a few months ago I've ended up with about 60 litres of BD mixed with some dino diesel (approx 30% BD). I left my rotary hand pump in the 44 gal drum for a couple of weeks and some nasty whitish stuff ended up in my fuel tank. I emptied out the tank and lines and the old girl's running nicely again.

    But now I have 60 litres of BD/fossil mix with a bit of white stuff mixed thru it. Without going to great expense is there a way I can clean this up and use it without risking any contaminated stuff getting into the tank again. I'm a bit over removing the fuel tank - not a nice job

    I'm reluctant to throw away 60 litres of fuel but if it's going to cost more than about $60 to clean it up then I probably won't bother. Alternatively if I can't clean it cheaply myself and there's a local BD maker who wants to grab it you'd be welcome to it.

    Cheers,

    Lucas

  • #2
    Re: reclaiming contaminated BD?

    The white stuff usually settles to the bottom of the drum.
    Star a syphone feeding from the top of the drum and follow the level of fuel in the drum down with the hose.
    You should get non-white fuel off the top.
    If that does not work pour the fuel through some close weave cloth and that should filter the white out.
    Don't throw it away
    Tilly

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    • #3
      Re: reclaiming contaminated BD?

      What is the white stuff? Algal growth? Chemical reaction? I've not heard of white stuff before and what caused it (aside from the obvious poor storage practice here)?
      I had some dirty grey sludgy stuff from leaving my drum pump in the open drum for too long, but definately not white stuff that settles over time
      Robert.
      Site Admin.

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      • #4
        Re: reclaiming contaminated BD?

        DWS- Dreaded White Stuff

        The thing that is usually referred to as "White Stuff" can be partially reacted or unreacted oil, especially of the animal or Palm variety which freezes at high temperature or even biodiesel made from palm or animal.
        It will occure more often in winter when some of these items have a chance to solidify in the cool winter temps.
        This type of white stuff settles to the bottom .
        Another form of white stuff is made from "injecting" water and air into the biodiesel when washing. This will cause the biodiesel to foam up and it floats on top in clumps.
        In time this foam will break up

        Tilly

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        • #5
          Re: reclaiming contaminated BD?

          Thanks Tilly. I guess Lucas lives up in the mountains, so the DWS solidifying in his climate makes sense.
          Lucas, I guess you're talking about the biodiesel that we got from Rutherford, so I'd assume that Rutherford must have used some palm in this batch, as I don't belive that they use tallow.


          Cheers,
          Robert.
          Site Admin.

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          • #6
            Re: reclaiming contaminated BD?

            Hi Tilly and Robert,

            I'm pleased to see that my introduction of the technical term "white stuff" has generated some discission

            I don't really know what it was but I just remember as I started turning the handle on the rotary pump thinking "I wonder if this first turn or two is okay as it's been sitting in the pump for a couple of weeks" and I pulled the nozzle out of the tank a bit to see and it "wasn't okay" - I saw what looked like frothy, kind of "oil/water"-looking "stuff" before the good oil came thru the nozzle.

            To my uneducated eye it looked like water had mixed in with it although the nozzle was hanging down (so rain couldn't have got in) - although the nozzle (stupidly) wasn't capped.
            Maybe it attracted water out of the air?
            This was in December and it was hot. Maybe the pump got really hot and partially changed the BD that was in the pump mechanism and black hose?
            A friend speculated it might have been glycol because "that sounds what glycol looks like" but he was guessing.
            I doubt that it was a cold gel happening. It was so hot at the time that I was more worried about heat problems than cold!

            I guess it doesn't really matter too much what it was. I'll just put it down to slack handling and storage and will avoid leaving the pump in the tank in future.

            But a watery mix does explain the filter blockage that resulted as when I up-ended the fuel filter a white "sort of fuel with water in it"-looking substance came out. And when I dropped the fuel tank out to clean the gauze filter on the inlet pipe it looked like the same stuff around the gauze.

            Lucas

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            • #7
              Re: reclaiming contaminated BD?

              Hello Lucas

              If you have a gauze on the intake tube in your tank that periodically blocks, you might try swapping the input hose with the return hose.

              Tilly

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