Ok guys, something else new to try! This should work for WVO or Bio. On one of the "other" boards I belong to we've been discussing the use of "flash-evaporation" to remove water from the WVO prior to making Biodiesel.

The basic system consists of a 2" pipe with a "tee" at the bottom with a waterheater eliment in the lower hole and the oil comming in the side if the "tee"
with the 24" pipe comming out the top. At the top of the pipe is another "tee" mounted with a thermometer in one side of the tee and a fixed "orifice" mounted in the other. A gear pump is used to supply the oil to the bottom of the collum at 150 psi.

The way it works is by heating the oil to 300-350 deg under 150 psi. This keeps the water liquid when it would normally boil off at no pressure. When the oil "sprays" out the orifice the water turns to steam and is removed off the top of the container and the dewatered oil falls to the bottom. Works great to dewater oil before putting it into your processer.

What I'm going to try, is to use it to remove the methanol from Biodiesel.
I have found that by removing the Methanol from the Biodiesel the soap will come out of suspension and can be removed by filtering.

I've read several studies that show the soap will come out of suspension because it will not stay in the bio without the methanol there. This is why letting it stand for 30 days will drop out the "slime" [soap].

Will post more after I've built one and done some experimenting.

FABMANDELUX.

 

I read a post somewhere on this board in the last few days, that a fella use a bit of lard with the oil and the lard makes everything drop out of suspension very quickly... Actually, I just tried searching to locate the post and can't find it, so maybe it was somewhere else.

 

Fab
my concern is that suspended soap particles might plug the orfice. I don't know that would happen but keep an eye on it for saftey sake.

 

My fault, I should have said the oil has to be prefiltered. The experiments I've done so far show that the soap is a gel and the orfice is not that small anyway.

The soap seems to "cling" to the sides of the tank, and settle to the bottom.
Since I don't water wash, but use settling, I've noticed that there is a "whiteish" "crud" that seemed to cling to the sides of my main settling tank. Normally I just dumped it into my "slime" tank and used it for heating. I tested some of it this weekend and found it was almost pure soap!

I'm going to try using my hydrocyclone to remove the soap before it goes to the flash evaporator.

FABMANDELUX.

 

You know you wont have but a few minutes to spend on that, with that carshow, other boards, Idaho, Texas calling, Universities calling, portable units to make, boat to restore, barn raising and barn burning ect.........Couldnt resist because resistance is futile. Ha ha ha dont ask me to bring you anything back from Maui, its all made in China.

 

Be nice now...........or I won't reveal all the secrets I'm bringing back from my trip to ISU Tuesday

FABMANDELUX.