Re: fixing the mayonnaise in Tote #1

Whoa, pH won't tell you a thing about biodiesel, honey.

First of all, emulsion is caused by soap more often than it's caused by
incomplete reaction. In flatter reactors, it's caused often by people
transferring glycerine into the wash tank, which brings  extra soap
on-board, but there can be other causes.

 Second, adding more lye without adding methanol will simply turn your
biodiesel to soap- even if you really need to re-react, you MUST use
more methanol.

Third, do you guys use the 3/27 test for reaction completion?: It's
really quick and simple and has revolutionised homebrewing quality
testing in the last few months:

http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/419605551/m/8281092351

To break an emulsion, try this technique
www.biodieselcommunity.org/breakingemulsions

Mark


Zac Imboden wrote:

> I'm planning on trying to fix the mayonnaise in wash tote #1 tomorrow,
> so we can re-react it if we have to. I'm also planning on cleaning out
> the rest of the paraffin from one of the new totes and using it as a
> temporary wash tank for the reacted fuel in vessels #1 & #2. We'll
> also try and make a hundred gallon batch tomorrow, using the stacked
> approach for methoxide mixing.
>
> Here is my plan, after talking to Seth, Amanda and consulting
> fuel-making sources. If any of it looks strange or the peanut gallery
> wants to offer suggestions before I go off and deal with this goop,
> feel free to comment:
>
>
> 1) if not enough lye added to batch - pH below 8 (too acidic)
>     will result in unreacted vegetable oil and methanol
>     titrate liquid with lye
>     figure out volume of liquid in tote
>     figure out quantity of lye to add to full volume
>     transfer goop to reactor
>     heat to 130
>     add lye to re-react (not more methanol)
>     let settle 8 hours
>
>
> 2) if too much lye added to batch - pH above 9 (too basic)
>     you will get soap along with a liquid containing: oil, soap and
>      biodiesel
>     titrate sample of liquid with acid to get neutral
>     add enough acid to neutalize the soap (bring pH to 7)
>         Remove thick parts if possible (the soap)
>         Take a homogenous 100ml sample of mayonnaise and test the pH
>          with litmus paper.
>         Add several drops of phenylphalein (pH indicator) to waste
>          water. The solution should turn pink because its basic!
>         In a DRY!! titration cylinder, put in 10 ml of 37% grade HCl.
>          (Be careful with HCl- flammable and very stinky stuff! Check
>          MSD sheet in Brew Book).
>         Slowly add in HCl one drop at a time to mayonnaise while
>          constantly stirring.
>             Frequently test the waste water with pH litmus paper.
>             Wait a full minute after each addition of HCL
>         Keep adding HCl until the pink color goes away and the pH is 7.
>         Amount of HCL used is per 100ml of mayonnaise.
>         Multiply the amount of HCl used by the number of liters of
>          waste water needed to be neutrilized.
>         You might want to shave off .2-.5 ml of HCl per liter so that
>          you avoid putting in too much acid. You can always add HCl in
>          the end if the waste water is still too high.
>         Test the waste water after treatment to make sure pH 7 was
>          achieved.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> Zac Imboden
> [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
> 1534 SE 35th Place
> Portland, OR
> 97214
> 971-563-2477
>
>
>
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