Water Tank for Heating/Mixing Biodiesel

The watt density of the heating elements may be too high for usage with oils, but reduced voltage or PWM (pulse width modulation) can fix that.

Thanks for your reply Tornado. I have read about people using water heater tanks for biodiesel on different web sites. What I am most concerned about is the possibility of a bulidup of "stuff" (buildup of rust, etc. on the tank walls, etc.) in the tank. I guess that most of that would be taken care of by normal filtering of the biodiesel but I just wanted to be proactive in the process.

Lot's of water heaters have glass lined tanks. Maybe you got lucky. If it's still intact you should be cooking soon.

While water heater tank is designed for 100C maximum temperature, oil heating may exceed lot from this temperature. Critical material may be wall material and surface coatings and heater insulation.

Perhaps ask Garthh as he has been Biodiesel expert and had his business in this area of fuel chemistry.

Thanks you are back on business. Expert knowledge is very valuable and it counts.

make sure to have plenty of ventilation, hot methanol is not your friend

That part needs to be highlighted. The vapor is highly toxic, and the effects are cumulative (chronic toxicity). We make ethyl biodiesel instead of methyl to avoid the employee toxicity exposure issue.

it's hard for a homebrewer to source ethanol, with a very low water content

good dry methanol can usually be sourced from fuel suppliers or speed shops.

Buy a cheap Breathalyzer, buy one without the blow tube & use it to detect the presence of either kind of alcohol, it also will help you determine if your BioD is dry enough to use

If you are using a water washing process to remove the glycerol & methanol, don't just dump it down the drain, make sure to dispose of it properly!!!

when using BioDiesel start out with a small percentage 2-5% & slowly increase the ratio.

BioD will flush the crud out of your fuel system, so keep an eye on your filters, you probably want to carry an extra set & know how to change them

Diesel engines made before 2003 may not have hoses, gaskets & seals that are compatible with BioD, especially higher ratios

if you want to blow through a few $1000's of dollars, run B100 in your Volkswagon diesel, the repair shop will love you

Garth, and others, thanks for the information.

"Diesel engines made before 2003 may not have hoses, gaskets & seals that are compatible with BioD, especially higher ratios" I have read that IF the BD is processed properly, especially with the water removed, the corrosive effects of the BD is negated. What is your opinion on that? Whenever I do get around to making the BD I do plan on starting with small ratios. I think that's a very good idea. I have a 2002 Chevy Duramax and a 1967 Ford diesel tractor.

What is your current production cost for a gallon of BD, not counting the cost of the processor?

I'm no longer processing BD

Methanol is the biggest expense

the guy in Utah has a nice easy to use water tester & a bunch of good info

I would suggest making a bunch 1 liter batches & learn how to titrate, being able to get repeatable test results is the best way to understand the process. The home made tumeric indicator solution, takes some time to understand the results, but gives a better range of results. There are many different indicator solutions, the best one is the one you understand. keep running tests until you can consistently get the same result 3 times in a row. We had also made a KOH solution that was 1/10th strength, to increase the definition [accuracy] of the test.

If the BD is dry & the Ph [acid#] is low enough, your problems will be minimized

We liked potassium better than sodium for catalyst, it's a little easier to get the right amount since it not quite as strong

We ran a separate acid process to deal with shortening

Never tried the combined process some of the small home processors used

to introduce the catalyst we ran a small line to the center area of a impeller pump & suck it right into the stream of oil, so we had more control over the rate... We welded a coupling, with a compression fitting to the elbow & used a piece of SS tubing to find the exact position

we also used several of the heaters I linked to earlier mounted inline on the output side of the pump, adding the catalyst cools off the oil, keeping the temp at optimum reduces the mix time

figuring out a way to have the intake pull from the middle of the processor instead of the bottom also helps, otherwise you keep mixing the glycerol that is trying to drop to the bottom back in with the unreacted oil...

I'd check around This Forum which I always thought is one of the best

to find out about potential problems you might have with your truck & tractor, do some more general searches

the tractor will probably be fine, as very few if any rubber parts will come in contact with the BD. I dare say the BD will probably help the pump & injectors. The cleaning & lubricity is one of the biggest benefits of BD. Low sulphur diesel reduces the service life of injectors & pumps

Thanks Garthh. I'm going to keep researching this site and the Journey to Forever site which I've looked at quite a bit in the past. I think that is a good point you made about using the KOH, concerning the strength.

the specifics at JTF are questionable

A far more reliable source or 2

http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/forums

the tutorials here

http://www.make-biodiesel.org/Introduction/

Thanks again Garthh. Can you share any particular pitfalls, and highs, that you have encountered when you were making BD?

Highs were from too much methanol in too small a place

when we got the process to the point we were making spec fuel, was for me the most satisfying

the deepest pitfall was one of my partners

It takes work to source good oil, it's a joy to make some fuel out of nice clean canola that was only used for making french fries & chips. shortening that's been used for frying breaded meat is just plain nasty

from a technical standpoint, water in any of the ingredients will make your life difficult. You have a bit more leeway on quality

cover any rags you use to clean up BD with in water to prevent spontaneous combustion