WVO and desiccants
 

Got a question for those of you who are creating your own BD (bio-diesel). In the process you have to remove/extract any water in the WVO, which can be accomplished chemically and by heating (to waters boiling point), but what about absorption? I came across some articles where after filter the WVO and allowing other impurities to settle or be filtered out, the 'clean' WVO was passed through a chamber of desiccant, I am assuming something like silica gel. As silica gel has such an affinity for water, it would seem as though this is a practical solution for pulling any water out of the oil be it WVO or WMO. Furthermore, since most desiccants by be regenerated by heating up to evaporate the trapped moisture in the pores of the desiccant, this too would seem another 'pro' as you can then reuse the desiccant.

Does anyone here have any experience with this process?
Thanks.<O:p</O:p

I guess I'll just keep this thread rolling. :-) Was talking to an oilfield supply company today and they are looking into serveral different types of desiccants for me, one of which is called Hydrotreat, used to extract the water from an water/oil emulsion. Should be interesting.