Made my first batch. Few Question.

[whiteaddiction]

I think everything worked out good, Ofcourse I have a lot of questions but I will try to keep it at a minimum. The truck runs great and quiet. So far. I am using fry shortening and its getting colder her now so I can't run it for much longer. Does anyone know what kind of mixture I can use with some diesel and or anti-gel additive to be able to run around 20 degrees? I have also watched many videos on making bio and they all have a different process. So what are you guys using for titration? Alcohol or Methonal. And I was told to use 7.5 plus titration, Is this good? And whats the long term effects of using unwashed bio? Thanks for any and all answers.

[Knotwild]

Hello. I caught your post by accident and I will throw in my 2 cents worth on the questions that I have experience in. There are a couple of other guys who are members who are much more experienced than I am.

We don't have extended cold here in south GA, so I have had success with mixing 20% diesel with 80% biodiesel. Most of my oil is soybean and I plug in my block heater at night. .

I use isopropyl alcohol and I think this is the standard. It is my understanding (and experience) that the oil does not mix well with Methanol, so your titration may appear to be lower than it actually is. I.e. isopropyl will be more accurate. When I have used methanol, my titrations were very low and I had a bad batch occasionally due to the low rates of KOH the erronious titration called for.

I am using 9.0 plus the titration. I went through a period of bad batches (along with others in my area, and others who commented on biodiesel forums) and it appears the KOH can degrade when exposed to air. Therefore, I increase the KOH from 7g/L to 9g/L. I hate bad batches that I have to re-run.

I am not an expert on using unwashed biodiesel. I do know that unwashed biodiesel that has not been through a process to remove the methanol does contain glycerin and soap in suspension. Glycerin and soap (particularly glycerin) will produce a significant amount of carbon which could damage injectors, and perhaps even bearings as it contaminates the oil.

Some people remove the methanol from the biodiesel, allow it to settle for 2-3 weeks, and then run it. I can say from experience that it will clear up into some beautiful fuel, but I still use a low rate of Magnesol as a dry wash to finish my fuel.

Good luck: You are officially addicted now.

[Rushmore X]

Originally Posted by whiteaddiction

I think everything worked out good, Does anyone know what kind of mixture I can use with some diesel and or anti-gel additive to be able to run around 20 degrees?

Are you getting your oil from the same place everytime? Different oils have different frost and gel points. Safest would be to get same jars and have different ratios in them, 20%, 30%... If the 80% started to get cloudy when cold, it would be time to go to 70%, ect. At least that is what I am going to do this winter. Most of last winter, I ran about a third bio unless it was getting near zero without a probem. Did use Diesel Clean once it was getting down into the teens... Also plugged in @ night.

I run mine throught 10-5-1 micron sock filters after distilling out Methanol and washing with Magnesol, then pump through an absolute filter. Need to update my gallery so I have better pics.