Were making good bio-diesel check it out

[Diesel JD]

Hey Alex, how hard is it to set up the GC for biodiesel? At my university we have a GC machine, the column for biodiesel, but no one has taken the effort to set up the machine for analysis of biodiesel. Most everyone only uses it for GC on biogas samples from anaerobic digestion. Yes the acid esterification process is hard. I often had to process batches through 2 or 3 base cycles to get sufficient conversion. This is starting with mixed feedstock oil with too much water in it and a titration of around 14-20 with KOH so roughly 7-10% by weight FFA content.

 

[Boston]

interesting thread guys
I have a friend who offered me 25 gallons a week of WVO from his biz for my truck and so I'm gearing up to convert my diesel. Wouldn't you know when it rains it pores and now another friend with a restaurant offered me his used cooking oil as well so now I'm awash in WVO.

I have a 7.3 1990 diesel and I'm thinking of a two tank system with heaters in both the filter and the second tank. I also want to give brewing up some bio a chance as well. I need to titrate the oil and check its acidity but assuming its ok nothing I'm reading says I wont run straight as long as I modify the viscosity and flush with petro diesel before I shut it down and on start up

so the million dollar question is how acidic can the WVO be before its trash and why cant I just use litmus paper or something easy to determine the PH of he material

cheers and best of luck with your start up

B

 

[Alex S]

Hey Alex, how hard is it to set up the GC for biodiesel? At my university we have a GC machine, the column for biodiesel, but no one has taken the effort to set up the machine for analysis of biodiesel. Most everyone only uses it for GC on biogas samples from anaerobic digestion. Yes the acid esterification process is hard. I often had to process batches through 2 or 3 base cycles to get sufficient conversion. This is starting with mixed feedstock oil with too much water in it and a titration of around 14-20 with KOH so roughly 7-10% by weight FFA content.

Ah you know i relay cant give you details because i barly never use the thing, we have a full time chemist that run it.

 

[Alex S]

interesting thread guys
I have a friend who offered me 25 gallons a week of WVO from his biz for my truck and so I'm gearing up to convert my diesel. Wouldn't you know when it rains it pores and now another friend with a restaurant offered me his used cooking oil as well so now I'm awash in WVO.

I have a 7.3 1990 diesel and I'm thinking of a two tank system with heaters in both the filter and the second tank. I also want to give brewing up some bio a chance as well. I need to titrate the oil and check its acidity but assuming its ok nothing I'm reading says I wont run straight as long as I modify the viscosity and flush with petro diesel before I shut it down and on start up

so the million dollar question is how acidic can the WVO be before its trash and why cant I just use litmus paper or something easy to determine the PH of he material

cheers and best of luck with your start up

B

well we like to stay under 2% FFA but you can work with 4. you will also want to do a water content test as well.

but realy if you are going to do the dual heated tank thing just filter it and mix it with some regular diesel. But you should still check for water content

 

[Boston]

hmmm
its been a while but if I remember right 2% is not on the ph scale
what does that amount to in terms of 1~14 and sure if your trying to measure the amount of ( moles of ) lye to add then you might need to know the % but for a simple taste test whats the magic PH value

sounds like it really doesn't mater if I'm just burning it straight but as I said I'd kinda like to try brewing up some joy juice but there's no point if this stuff is not suitable anyway. so rather than go dig up the chemicals I need to test it for quantity of reactant I'm just hoping I can stick a piece of litmus paper in it and get some idea of if its good or not

anyway great to see folks getting this ball rolling
I'm dog tired of the oil and gas giants and I'm loving the latest with algae based fuels
cant wait till they hit the market

cheers
B