hey guys, i just made my frst 30gallon batch of biodiesel, and i have it in my settling tank, i drained of the gliceryne from the bottom, and now im readdy to add Magnesol,
my question is,whats the best way to test your oil before magnesol
how to test it for soap, or anything ealse,
im new to this stuff, and if you guys dont mind, can you give me some pointers, id like to use it for my 2001 F250 powerstroke and HHO,
thank you


Peter

 

I think they were doing the magnesol before the settleing tank.

But they saying to use a mixer not a pump to mix your magnesol. Then strain it when your done useing gravity is best, because the pump grinds the magnesol up, and you dont want that in your engine.

I immagine there are some simple tests for acides and soaps.

 

Google "3/27 Test" and learn how to do it.. Its fast and easy..

 

Testing for Soap

If you're not bubble washing till the wash water is crystal clear, you definitely want to test for soap.

3/27 is good to tell you if full conversion occured. Simply mix 1 part bio to 9 parts methanol. Bio will dissolve, and any unconverted will drop to the bottom. If it stays cloudy, there may be other isues as well.

 

thanks Murphy,,,
and JOAT im doing Magnesol dry wash, so i dont think i have to do water wash or bubble dry,
i hope im correct?
and what finished bio should look like? as far as the color?

 

ok i did 3/27 test and 1/9 test
3/27 after mixing it i had a little dark oil or whatever settle to the bottom, about 1ml abd bio cleared up afer 1-2 min, with a little yelowish color, but clear
1/9 test was a similar story with little about .5ml settlement and cleared fast too

so what does it mean?

i use applesead processor

can anyone do some analizing for me?
thanks

 

Color will be yellow to coffee, depending on the source oil. It should be sparkling in a jar, no cloudyness at all. Depending on how dark it is will make a difference on how far into a barrel you can see.

Magnesol and no water, will probably remove most contaminants, but I'd still do a soap test. Also there is a chance you will not get all the methanol out without water, unless you air dry or distill it off.

Have you looked into GL's one day process? Thats the way I'd go if I was'nt so happy with water washing.

 

It means you have bad fuel.

Here is another test you can do,
Take a 1 liter sample and add 250ml of methanol and 1 gram of your catalyst.. shake it up and heat in microwave to just warm. Keep shaking lots and re-warming for 20 seconds at a time.

After 1/2 hour, let settle and see if any more glycerin settles to the bottom.

If it does, the fuel batch you made is crap.. Probably good enough for a farm tractor or old mercedes diesel, but don't dare put that in a new vehicle.

Any settling at all on a 3/27 test means BAD fuel.

The test should go cloudy for 10 seconds and clear up fast.. that means good fuel..

Did you titrate? before reacting?
Please post your process parameters for diagnosis.

I should also add.. the color of your finished fuel means nothing. There is almost no meaningful information to be obtained from visually inspecting a sample of fuel.

 

thanks Murphy
my process was 29 gal of fuel, 6 gal of methanol and about 900 gram of LYE
oil was heated first to 130 or more like 140, than i circulated it for a while and adrs mix of methoxide( ithink thats how its called)
circulated it for an hour or so, transfered it to settling tank , after day or so i drained off about 5 gal or so of dark color of gliceryne,
my titration came out to about 4, so was 4+4 for lye,
thats how the mix was done

is it possible to fix the batch?
thanks

Peter

 

I'm not sure what formula you are following but things are not right.

6 gallons of methanol is on the shy side.. You should be using 22% of your batch size..


First off, all biodieselers speak in Liters and grams not gallons. Please repost your figures using the appropriate units of measure.

Also, you list Lye as your catalyst but no mention of what kind of lye.. Are you using NaOH or KOH and what is its purity?

No matter which, a base amount of 4grams is way to small.. For most NaOH, the base is 5 or 5.5 and for most KOH the base is 8grams per liter.

I understand you're using a water heater? So your vessel is sealed from methanol loss.. that's good.. but 140 is a bit to hot.. try to keep it between 125 and 130. When you get to hot, you start boiling off methanol.. not good.

To fix your batch, I would add another 3 grams per liter of batch size of your catalyst and another 10% methanol.

As an alternative, if you kept your glycerin sealed up when you drained it, you could just mix that in and reduce to 2 grams per liter of batch size and 8 or 10% methanol.

My numbers are just an educated guess.. Exact figures can be obtained by re-figuring your calculations correctly using Liters and grams.

In addition, if you switch to KOH instead of NaOH (if that's what your using), you'll have better and easier batches.. Its just a tad more expensive..

 

thanks JOAT
and thanks Murphy
i added o a small batch methanol and NaOH- thats what im using, and after settling i did a 3/27 test and it was perfect, so im going to add a missing amount to my batch after reaheating and let it circulater fo hour or so, and let it settle than Magnesol drywash, and should be all set, thanks a lot guys,
now i know how to do it in the future, and what is the Base weight of LYE
and that i have to add 22% methanol not 20%, do i was a little off, and thats why my tests got all screwed up

 

The base weight of LYE depends on what kind of LYE.

NaOH = Sodium Hydroxide = 5 grams/liter @ 100% purity

KOH = Potassium Hydroxide = 8 grams/liter @90% purity

 

I actually get better results using a base of 7 grams/liter KOH (or 5 NaOH), but I also use 20% 80/20 base/base. Of course purity varies so that can be a factor too, but I use approx 90% pure KOH at 7 base and pass 3/27.

From what I've experienced 2 stage is the way to go if you want consistent good results with less than 25% methanol. At least down to 20%. Batches I've tried at 16% and 17% did not give me full conversion in 20 or 40 gallon batch sizes (oh no, I used gallons )

 

JOAT, which metod do you use for KOH titration, the instructions i have are for NaOH, and thats what i'v been using, and i just ordered KOH 90% pure, so i have to get new instructions for it,

thanks

Peter

 

I factor the purity in afterwards. Use NaOH for your titration still, as you can get it closer to 100% purity so the results are more accurate. Then you can increase the results by 1.4 for the change to KOH and increase by another 10% or whatever your purity is. However with low <1 titrating oil I don't always factor the 1.4 in and still get good results, but then were talking a very small change.

There are some variables in the oil so if you have a consistent source you can play with the amounts a bit in test batches and see if you get better results woth more oor less catalyst. The test batches don't always directly relate to what you'll get in a full batch but they can give you some ideas on what to try.