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I've been off bio forums since Infopop closed. Stumbled across this group and was so pleased to see so many familiar names that I joined!
I've been making bio since 2003 and using the whole batch demeth since it became a thing on Infopop without problems. Some time ago I started failing 27/3 tests despite doing what I thought was the right thing throughout..
For my most recent batch I decided to do an 80/20 batch to see if my results improved. As I do 400L with 80L of methanol batches at a time I added 60L of methoxide (8g + 4g titration KOH) and processed for 3 hours and drained the glycerol (around 60L not sure) I then added the last 20L of methoxide. After an hour I tested and got a cloudy result with visible dropout and kept mixing and testing with the same result............ While waiting I decanted some fresh methanol for the 27/3 test and retested and viola a clear pass. Turns out my test methanol had absorbed enough water from the atmosphere over time to be useless for testing. Lesson learned.
So I went straight to WBD and testing every now and then to check for the process reversing but got a clear pass all the way to my target extraction of 20L methanol. I settled overnight and while still warm the next day prepared to drain the glycerol. Well there was pretty well nothing to drain, maybe 100ml. So I waited a few more hours but got just a few ml more. I then decanted some bio into a tall 250ml scientific measure which I leave in a sunny windowsill and watch over time to see how much methanol was present once it evaporates. It's dropped 1ml in two days and one of those ml may be temperature related. (was warm when decanted) I could see what I think is a light cloud of soap slowly settling. I settle for around a week in my processor before decanting into drums and using it.
It seems I might have been close to passing 27/3 after the first mix of 75% methoxide. Unfortunately I never tested then but will next time. Due to previous batches failing 27/3 I've been bumping up methanol and KOH here and there but failing no matter how much I mixed when all along I had water contaminated test methanol. Hope this helps someone else along the line. While demething I also just keep adding 1ml test samples to the existing 27/3 test kit and it keeps passing without having to prepare 27ml for each test.
Used in 2 x VW VE TDI's, 1 x VW PD TDI, 1 x Toyota 3CT
I've been making bio since 2003 and using the whole batch demeth since it became a thing on Infopop without problems. Some time ago I started failing 27/3 tests despite doing what I thought was the right thing throughout..
For my most recent batch I decided to do an 80/20 batch to see if my results improved. As I do 400L with 80L of methanol batches at a time I added 60L of methoxide (8g + 4g titration KOH) and processed for 3 hours and drained the glycerol (around 60L not sure) I then added the last 20L of methoxide. After an hour I tested and got a cloudy result with visible dropout and kept mixing and testing with the same result............ While waiting I decanted some fresh methanol for the 27/3 test and retested and viola a clear pass. Turns out my test methanol had absorbed enough water from the atmosphere over time to be useless for testing. Lesson learned.
So I went straight to WBD and testing every now and then to check for the process reversing but got a clear pass all the way to my target extraction of 20L methanol. I settled overnight and while still warm the next day prepared to drain the glycerol. Well there was pretty well nothing to drain, maybe 100ml. So I waited a few more hours but got just a few ml more. I then decanted some bio into a tall 250ml scientific measure which I leave in a sunny windowsill and watch over time to see how much methanol was present once it evaporates. It's dropped 1ml in two days and one of those ml may be temperature related. (was warm when decanted) I could see what I think is a light cloud of soap slowly settling. I settle for around a week in my processor before decanting into drums and using it.
It seems I might have been close to passing 27/3 after the first mix of 75% methoxide. Unfortunately I never tested then but will next time. Due to previous batches failing 27/3 I've been bumping up methanol and KOH here and there but failing no matter how much I mixed when all along I had water contaminated test methanol. Hope this helps someone else along the line. While demething I also just keep adding 1ml test samples to the existing 27/3 test kit and it keeps passing without having to prepare 27ml for each test.
Used in 2 x VW VE TDI's, 1 x VW PD TDI, 1 x Toyota 3CT
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