washing with heat

[Captaincademan Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Captaincademan]

Re: washing with heat

Hi Alga,

sounds like you have observed something pretty similar to me with the brown colour and floaties. interesting that they disappeared??? (key in spooky music)....

Hey Jens - sorry I didnt read your post properly, if you want to jump in on the action would love you to try and repeat and perhaps get a better result, particuarly if you have better equipment than I (which isnt hard mind you).

Just a word of caution to anyone heating up bio, once it reaches its temperature of around 130 degrees it will accept a flame and ignite, which is quite different to its normal benign properties at room temp.

[Bueff Biofuel Enthusiast Find all posts View Profile Close Bueff]

Re: washing with heat

Hey Jens,

do you mist and bubble or do you just jam in the water and belt it up with your brewer? it is interesting that you keep it heated. .

Hi Cade,

I have a 3/4 inch metal garden sprayer from bunnings mounted upside down in the processor. In terms of misting, that's how fine it gets.

I add 50ltrs of water to the mix with the methoxide still in the brew as a pre-wash. Once the methanol and glycerin has been removed, I add another 50 or 60ltr to the bio and turn the paddle mixer on for 15 min or so.
I the let it all sit for a couple of days and drain the water/ soap out and run the bubbler until the bio becomes crystal clear.

With the brew staying warm everything settles out a lot easier and no emulsion is formed I find. Mind you all my bio gear is running off our off grid solar system, so power costs / consumption is of no concern.

All up it can take up to 5 days per batch of bio, but since I am making 1000ltr at a time, I have plenty of bio in storage so time is not an issue either.

I'll see that I get a chance to have a play in the next few weeks and get back to you.

Have fun!

[Dr Mark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dr Mark]

Re: washing with heat

Hi Mark,

The floaties do not appear to be brown. they appear to be a whispy whitish. they are the same density as the body of the fuel, i.e. they do not sink or swim. they stay suspended nicely. the total body of the liquid changes to a brown hue, completely evenly distributed. there is a slight amount of brown dropout that appears on the bottom after a few hours though, looks exactly like glycerine sitting in the bottom. intersetingly the sample that was hot filtered had more dropout than the sample that was cold filtered.

interesting point about the components not boiling off at their respective temperatures. dont forget Mark, a lot of us are not classically educated and our eyes glaze over with use of terms we are completely unfamiliar with - such as 'azeotropes'. we sometimes need a lay explanation to assist (as you have done so in the post above - thankyou).

given your access to good gear and a scientific approach, would you mind please heating up some unwashed bio (made with a single stage method) to around 180 degrees and putting some comments on as to what you observe? I know this is putting you out, and completely understand if you dont have the time or inclination, but I'm sure the broader community would benefit from the experiment being done properly rather than done on a greasy old bbq outside in the wind with more variables than you can imagine.

I will still persist as I am pretty keen to see where this goes, and whether or not there is a process that can be developed which is safe and efficient..

I’m sorry but I don’t have access to the facilities for this. It’s a job for a GCMS and I don’t happen to have one of those floating around.
Also, unlike some people on this site I’m not going to guess and then act as though I know what I’m talking about

[tillyfromparadise Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close tillyfromparadise]

Re: washing with heat

Hi Mark,

I’m sorry but I don’t have access to the facilities for this. It’s a job for a GCMS and I don’t happen to have one of those floating around.
Also, unlike some people on this site I’m not going to guess and then act as though I know what I’m talking about

I am so glad to see that you finally realize it is necessary to perform the testing BEFORE you post the test results.
I assume you will now be changing the misinformation you have repeatedly posted to this forum claiming that the standard single stage Base method can not produce biodiesel at room temperature.