Re: First time making bio diesel

On Feb 7, 2008 8:28 AM, John Harris <[email protected]> wrote:
> Jeff
> Thanks for the feelback.  I have the yellow botttle of Heat.  What is IPA?
> I have put the washed product in my freezer and will get rid of the foam.
> Is washing the only way to test to see if I have made good boi diesel?
> John



I'm sorry, I did some checking and it appears my statement was
incorrect about the bottle colors. I had it backwards, and IPA means
isopropyl alcohol.

Although it should be possible to make fatty acid isopropyl ester,
where as normal biodiesel is a fatty acid methyl ester. You can know
for sure by seeing if the label on the bottle says HEET or IsoHEET.

Although it looks from your results that the reaction only went to
about 65% based on the amount of glycerol that fell out.

There is a test that determines your reaction completion known as the
3/27 test.

You mix 3ml of your biodiesel with 27ml of methanol, shake it up, let
it sit for 5 minutes or so and check if you can see any precipitate on
the bottom. Cloudy is fine as long as it doesn't settle to the bottom.

The methanol absorbs the biodiesel, but not the oil. So if you have
good biodiesel, nothing should fall to the bottom.

I have been told that the HEET is not pure methanol and if the
impurity is water then this would definitely cut the biodiesel
reaction short. Water will cause the reaction to halt part way
through. A little water is inevitable as mixing the methanol with
potash or lye was make water as it reacts. So it is really important
that you start with very dry oil and very dry methanol.

The methanol typically used is 99.8% pure.

--
Jeff Brandt
Sun Break Biofuels, LLC
http://www.sunbreakbiofuels.com
mailto:[email protected]