Re: Fuel test results

Most of the problems I've ever had have come from
water either in my unprocessed oil or getting the
water out of the biodiesel once I've washed it so my
next step has been doing some extra research to try to
find a CHEAP way of getting the water out of the
biodiesel without having to warm up the whole batch
which is time consuming and energy intensive.  So far
here are 2 possibilities I've come up with from Racor:


http://www.maesco.com/products/racor/r_mc_intro/r_mc_intro.html


Here's a good discussion I've found on filtering out
water in oil:

http://forums.thedieselstop.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=1983410&page=8&view=collapsed&sb=1&o=&fpart=1

Here's a link to a turbine filter made by Racor that
is 
supposed to filters out even the fine water out of
suspended diesel fuel.  Whether any of these will work
for biodiesel and WVO I'll have to do a bit more leg
work to find out


http://www.maesco.com/products/racor/r_tbn_intro_hwy/r_tbn_intro_hwy.html



--- Zac Imboden <[email protected]> wrote:

> Attached is a pdf of the spreadsheet containing the
> test results of  
> the fuel testing Zan and I performed from
> 2/8-2/12/07. The results  
> indicate that when a significant amount of water is
> within the source  
> oil, no single factor can lead to a good reaction.
> 
> Here is what we found:
> 
> 1. Our KOH on-site is good. We successfully reacted
> fuel with it and  
> passed the 3/27 test well.
> 2. The reasons for the last three problem fuel
> batches have been found:
> 	a) mayonnaise was caused by deficit of lye in a
> batch; incomplete  
> lye = incomplete reaction
> 	b) incomplete reactions caused not enough methanol
> AND high amounts  
> of water in oil
> 3. We have confirmed the correct proportions to get
> good results on  
> the table top. This includes 7.78 as our base amount
> for lye; 22%  
> methanol per volume of oil
> 4. Heat of reaction is not as critical as water
> content of oil,  
> although its still a factor.
> 5. Ambient heat during the settling period after
> reaction is not  
> critical. In fact, it made no difference.
> 6. Water content in oil has been our CHIEF culprit
> since the weather  
> cooled; significantly less amounts of water have
> settled to bottom of  
> our oil totes. We MUST get this water out of the oil
> before reacting.
> 7. There are two types of precipitates possible from
> a 3/27 test:  
> globules of unreacted oil and water-soluble
> impurities that appear  
> like tiny grey fuzzy material. Presence of these is
> not a sign of a  
> failed 3/27 test, as the fuzzy material dissolves in
> water and can be  
> removed by washing.
> 
> Our methodology:
> 
> We started with pure, unused soybean oil and first
> experimented with  
> varying amounts of lye, methanol and changing heat
> of reaction,  
> ambient settling temperature, etc. We wanted to see
> what factors  
> independently affected the quality of reaction.
> Additional methanol  
> did not improve any reactions.
> 
> After determining that only less lye made a
> significant difference in  
> reaction quality, we moved to good quality WVO with
> the same  
> proportions we used for good results with unused
> oil.
> 
> We also tested the lye from our site to determine
> efficacy, and we  
> also tested phenol red versus phenolthalene to
> compare these two  
> indicators for quality of titration. Phenol red is a
> poor indicator  
> and resulted in much lower titration amounts, which
> led to poorly  
> reacted fuel.
> 
> We then tested extremely poor quality WVO which
> contained a  
> significant quantity of water. No matter what
> variables we used, we  
> were unable to get a good reaction.
> 
> Further tests could be conducted to try a
> combination of factors for  
> better reacting poor, water-laden WVO, but it is
> advised to remove  
> the water from the oil before reaction.
> 
> > _______________________________________________
> mixmasters mailing list
> [email protected]
>
http://lists.gobiodiesel.org/mailman/listinfo/mixmasters



 
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