Re: Sunday's test

Excellent! Maybe we can talk by phone tonight before you contact them?

On Mar 13, 2007, at 9:53 AM, Mich Nelson wrote:

> Zac, I have had several folks respond to the member survey who  
> indicated an interest in mixmasters activity.  I can send an e-mail  
> to them and follow up with phone calls to see who I can scrape up.   
> I can start that process right away.
>
> Beyond that, I am available to meet/call (except Weds night).
>
> Thanks, Mich
>
> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Zac Imboden <[email protected]>
>> Sent: Mar 13, 2007 12:24 PM
>> To: Felix Kersting <[email protected]>
>> Cc: Zan Alford <springnutz-/[email protected]>, Brian Jamison  
>> <[email protected]>, Cheryl Edmonds  
>> <[email protected]>, Karen Kruse <[email protected]>,  
>> Peter Kramer <[email protected]>, GoBiodiesel Mixmasters  
>> <[email protected]>, Mich Nelson <[email protected]>
>> Subject: Re: Sunday's test
>>
>> Making a batch this week!
>> ------------------------------------
>> I'm pretty confident that the top oil from our WVO tote will react
>> well after heating and settling. I'm going down tonight to pump top
>> oil from the WVO tote that has good separation of oil and watery oil.
>> I'll pump it into the oil heater and heat it up, let it settle
>> tomorrow and react on Thursday. I will also go ahead and make a test
>> jar batch of the top oil at the same time. See what it does.
>>
>> The tests from Sunday were confusing. I reacted another test jar
>> Sunday night, using the same oil from that was in the heater.
>>
>> Tuesday - heat oil (settle overnight)
>> Thursday - react a batch
>> I'm going to plan on making a full batch from the top oil in the WVO
>> tote on Thursday. I could use some help then.
>> Saturday - We will need some people to drain the glycerin, run a 3/27
>> test and get the fuel into the wash. I'll be out of town, so we need
>> some people to step up and help.
>>
>>
>> List of immediate things needing to be done
>> ----------------------------------------------
>> --Drain off WVO "BBQ" drum until watery swill turns to oil. Put this
>> oil in one of the totes.
>> -- Find and purchase a 50 micron filter for the WVO. This is what  
>> we  
>> will use to aid water settling.
>> -- Fix oil heater #2 wall switch. The switch doesn't turn off the  
>> circuit when the switch is in off position!
>> -- Complete fittings to allow pumping reacted fuel into the new  
>> settling tote.
>> -- Install Camlock fittings for wash tote: find, purchase and install
>> -- Purchase round aluminum "stack" with elbow bend for dryer.
>> -- Purchase window screen or steel wool to stuff in stack as  
>> demister.
>> -- Fix pipe leak in washer tote.
>> -- Find and purchase 26 foot polyethylene hose and PCB pipe to  
>> replace the patched methoxide hose. -- Route the hose through the
>> pipe at ground level.
>>
>> List of things that need to get going
>> ------------------------------------------------
>> --Band heaters for the WVO "BBQ" drum. The more I think about this,
>> the more sense it makes. We can turn it off in the summer, but for
>> cold weather, I think it will make a difference.
>> --Conex clean-up. We need figure out a rotation for cabin detail.
>> Mopping, rag washing, material purchases, etc. I'm not doing all  
>> that.
>>
>> The Bigger Picture
>> ---------------------------------
>> -- We need to solve the water in oil problem. We're hoping  
>> filtering  
>> the oil before heating will make the difference in water settling. If
>> not, we will do two heat-and-settles before reacting. If not that,
>> then two-stage reactions are in order.
>> -- We should shoot for producing 50 gallons of fuel each week  
>> starting now.
>> -- By the end of May, we should aim to get to 100 gallons by  
>> setting  
>> up the second reactor vessel.
>> -- By July, we should be producing fuel two days/nights a week and  
>> getting 200 gallons.
>>
>> Time for a Mixmaster Meeting
>> -----------------------------------------
>> Karen,
>> Can you go ahead and send out a call for a mixmasters meeting, so we
>> can get some more people involved? Please also add it to the
>> gobiodiesel calendar.
>>
>> Helping Hands
>> ------------------------
>> Mich,
>> Can we arrange to meet and discuss how to source some help for these
>> tasks? I'm not going to really on responses to lists, emails or web
>> postings any longer. They don't work well. We need to contact
>> members, give them some concrete tasks and times and get them  
>> working.
>>
>> On Mar 12, 2007, at 10:36 PM, Felix Kersting wrote:
>>
>>> Zac,
>>>
>>> If I heard you right on the phone message, the middle oil passed
>>> the 3/27, but the oil from the top of the tank didn't.  Glad to
>>> hear that one test was good, but dismayed to hear that the other
>>> was bad.
>>>
>>> Glad to hear you are redoing the tests.  I understand that you are
>>> also going to test some top oil.  Will you heat and settle the top
>>> oil or try it straight?  Straight sounds good to me.  Can I suggest
>>> 3 tests from each sample.  It's a lot of work, but it's good
>>> validation.   Somebody stop me if I am blowing smoke.
>>>
>>> Let me know as soon as you have consistent results.  I would like
>>> to brainstorm with you and others how we will provide a constant
>>> supply of good oil to the process.  Heating and settling sounds
>>> like the best bet if we get good results, but we will be flexible
>>> from the equipment side.
>>>
>>> Thanks again for your hard work on this.  Soon we will be back in
>>> production and there will be eager hands to lighten the load.
>>>
>>> Felix
>>>
>>>
>>
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