Re: the washing process

On 3/3/08, John Harris <[email protected]> wrote:

> In all that I have read about washing processed bio, there is nothing mentioned
> about product tempature.  Will washing go faster, or more effective, by raising
> the temp of the product during the washing process?

Yes, washing at higher temperatures should reduce water consumption
and get the job done quicker.

When you increase the temperature, soluble impurities in the biodiesel
will more readily absorb into the warm water. You want to move as much
soap into the water as possible, increased temperature will increase
the point of supersaturation.

One downside is that higher concentrations of soap in the water will
also make it easier to create an emulsion. You need to be very careful
when agitating the biodiesel and water. The more soap you remove, the
harder you can agitate it without emulsion risks. So the key is to
agitate very gently at first, and get more aggressive with each change
out of soap saturated water.

There are several ways you can avoid emulsions, you can pump your
biodiesel into the water from the bottom, the biodisel will want to
float to the surface where it can get picked up and pumped back in
again. This avoids creating soap bubbles in the first place. You still
need a "spray" of biodiesel coming from the bottom though, just a
liquid spraying into another liquid in the absence of open head space.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding for emulsions of
biodiesel and water is; No air = No emulsion

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