fats in bio

bio man,

Fats will crap up your engine. Make sure you allow the saponification reaction to complete and do the separation step. If you want to understand the manufacture of biodiesel fuel better, there are many websites that contain this information.

P.S. You need to work on your spelling and punctuation.

Mike

I filter hot wvo then spin and run svo without prob as long as the svo is heated . I have 3 on board filters in front of IJ pump keep it hot and svo works well

What do you mean by breaking down fats? Are you asking about the transesterification process? If so, I gave a very detailed explanation here. On the other hand, if you mean removing solid fats, either filter them out or melt them down and transesterify them separately.

You need to re-visit the method that you are using. Also web search on "iodine test".

Some solids/fats are OK to run once heated and others are a definate No-No! The iodine test is a means to establish whether the resultant fuel will gum up the injectors and other parts or just burn out properly.

There's a saying in Aus "oils aint oils" meaning that each oil is differnet and so the answer to your question would need VERY specific information about the materials.

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/9888/Greasecar-experiences

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/27251/New-User-Group-Biodiesel

The fats will burn and don't believe anything different. With a hot diesel engine running at high temps, the fat will be dripping into the muffler and clogging the exhaust and making soap.

I had an old full sized diesel pump and generator set-up and brazed an "exhaust cut-out" (purchased from JC Whitney) with the exit turned downward to drop the soap out when I would run major amounts of direct and pure kitchen grease through the engine. After adding a handful of sand to the soap, it made up for being too cheap to buy Lava soap or decent hand cleaner.

I would not suggest running the fatty grease/oil on the street or in the cold, simply because of the bubbles in the rain and the solid mass you'd have each time it dropped below 45 degrees.

JL Mealer
Mealer Companies LLC
America's Next Major Automaker
http://mealercompanies.com

Thatis the only prob I have had cold so what is needed is a heated fuel tank I do filter out fats befor use but still have a gel point at cold .

In organic chemistry the only difference between oils, fats and waxes is the liquidity. This is dictated generally by either the molecular weight (no. of carbon atoms in the molecule) and in the case of oils the vegetable oils the degree of saturation. If a vegetable oil such as sunflower (polyunsaturated) is treated with hydrogen it become a cooking fat (saturated).

In the case of hydrocarbons as the molecular chain length increases so does the viscosity it goes from gas to liquid to oil to grease to solid. All these have the same basic structure given in chemistry as C₂H_2n+2. That is each Carbon atom has 2 Hydrogen atoms and there is one Hydrogen atom at each end of the molecule.

Biodiesel is a vegetable oil and to be liquid and easy to handle should be unsaturated. Saturated oils like Coconut would also burn but would need to be heated to liquefy them for injection. I would expect higher molecular weight oils to be less easily combustible and you could end up with fats in your system.

Happy - Want more ???

Sorry folks formula should read C_nH_2n+2

LIKE YOUR STYLE I have made my equipment to do what I am doing to costly to buy I am working at not spending $ not just put it in a different pocket LOL

Great to understand how it works then it can be made to work better

I run waste veggie oil (mostly soy) in my diesel ('84 mercedes 300 SD turbo).I avoid partially hydrogenated oils which are solid at room temp. The key is filtration! Solid fats liquify at elevated temperature and slip right thru the filter. I cold filter at ambient temp thru a series of filter bags.I start with 100 micron to get out the french fries, then go to 25, 5 and 1 micron to get out the silt and saturated fats. If you wash your bio-D and cold filter, you should be ok.

Have you tried a hot water wash first to get rid of the chips and batter? After standing the oil and water should separate and leave some of the crap behind. Providing what you get is liquid is fairly clear you should be alright. To get rid of the fats the you need to winterise - drop the temperature which will separate the fats from the oil. Lower the temp then the more will separate so control the temp so that what you get is fluid enough.

I tried washing oil that had a lot of breading in it. It separated, but had an emulsion layer in the middle.Got to be messy, took a while to separate and had all that water to process or dispose of. Handling the water made double work. I like the cool,dry process.

Sounds as if you might have some soap in your mix - chuck in a handful of salt and it might break up the emulsion. Acidification could help - Hydrochloric reacts with XS caustic (if that is what is there) to form salt. Soap comes from a reaction between the oil (fatty acids) and caustic soda.

Are you saying that you are getting an incomplete reaction while making BioD? and that there is still fats in your final product? If so check your titration and make sure you are using enough caustic/methanol. You can also add some of the glycerin from a previous batch to your filtered oil in you reator chamber (this helps lower the titration value and you can reduce the amount of caustic you use, I use about 2 gallons per 40 gallons). Double check your base values for you titration method as sell. Are you using NaOH or KOH or something else. I have read about using sulphuric acid as a pretreat as well but have no gone that route..

It is quite common to give oils an acid wash prior to refining them. It gets rid of the natural products such as lecithins (the "break") and so is called "break free" or acid refined. The next step is the check the acidity and neutralise which gets rid of any excess acid and any free fatty acids. This is probably not needed for biodiesel - it is not needed when making resins for paint in fact the next step in resin making, similar to biodiesel, is speeded up by using break-free oil. The break - the stuff that gives the oil its flavour, is generally decomposed on heating that is why crude oils are not really suitable for high temperature cooking.

What is the point of starting with vegetable oil; an effective fuel but then changing it through exhaustive/expensive process into a diesel fuel?

But have fun with chemistry while I burn the straight vegetable oil and reap greater efficiency

Emissions [particulate]

& the crud that will build up in your motor/fuel system, really depends on the power plant, some are fussyer than others....

the fun with chemistry part would be acid treatment, which will convert the free fatty acids into esters... the acid will also break the water out of hydrogenated oil

soap comes from water, if you can get the water out of your oil [process]the amount of soap will be reduced & yield improved

For one I don't have to convert my 2 furnaces to accomodate WVO. I am under the impression that BioD can be used under cooler conditions as well. 40-50 F. No using WVO I am not sure, can you clarify

The cloud point of bio depends on the feedstock...

Bwire's point is why spend the time & effort to convert the WVO?

I'm not sure how close to spec the bio has to be for a furnace.

if you control the caustic amount carefully you can reduce the amount of finishing [water washing, magnasol or purolite] you have to do...

I have been burning BD for two years now. I started out washing but that was a real pain. Drying took forever. After talking to fellow BD makers and reading a bit on the web I tried burning unwashed BD. It ran fine. saved tons of time, water and effort.

The majority of my stock is canola. My basement gets pretty cold inthe winter, probably in the low 50s F if not high 40s. (It is 200+ years old stone foundation with no mortar.) I have not had any congealling issues to date.

I was going to suggest unwashed, as the excess methanol sure won't hurt the cloud point... but didn't know how new you were to all this..

Thanks Garthh

The last change to my procedure was the addition of glycerin from the previous batch to the newly filter stock in my reactor. I add about 2 gallons per 30 gallons of wvo before heating. This helps break down the FFA which reduces the amount of caustic required to complete the reaction.

rlindey

the glycerin in the wvo trick will help reduce the amount of caustic...the excess all ends up there anyhow

The glycerol can also be mixed with about 10 parts water to make a decent dust suppresant for dirt roads...

I keep the VO between 85° - 120° the tank helps heat the basement. I've covered the basement walls of the 110 year old with 3" Styrofoam, improved the environment waay better

When purification is a factor heating the oil to 135° - 150° creates a self purification of the oil in that particles are forced to the bottom while pure clear oil remains at the top

bwire,

What kind of furnace are you using? If conventional did you have to make modifications? What is your feedstock???

Bob

Here's some old threads on this subject...

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/4759#comment253801

http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/13421#comment133269

reduce the pressure at the nozzle...

soy or palm...

interesting, I would think you would need more pressure since the viscosity is probably higher....

heat reduces viscosity

thinner than #2?

thin enough, reduce to about 45psi

Whopsie - you missed the first chapter - the idea is to stop the use of fossil fuels and use renewable resources - recycling through the vegetable chain!

High time the first world got the idea that there is a tremendous potential in places like Africa. They could kill two birds with one stone. First need to stop the bickering and stupidities like taking productive land and converting it into small farms. There is plenty of potential farming land especially in central Africa - I am sure that palm oil and other crops could be grown there. All that is needed is to provide the infra structure Roads Power machinery and know-how and there are vast areas which could be made productive. This would also help the poor and stop the squabbling by getting the peasants working and feeding - what a potential for consumer goods.

The present get-rich-quick attitudes in Africa which are based on such things as gold and diamonds needs to be stopped. At the same time the "greenies" must understand that to change the jungles from decorative to functional is still green and surely there are areas which can be left to nature as is the case in South Africa.