--- In biofuel@yahoogroups.com, "girl_mark_fire" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > >Please take a look at it if you're interested in trying out this method, > > >maby > > >people are put off by thinking they'll need a specialized reactor to try acid- > > >base (I certainly thought so for a long time). > > > > I don't know why people think that - can you tell me why? If there's > > something that misleads I'll fix it. >
Oops, I just thought of all the other stuff. I can't say it's got something to do with 'misleads'- it was more a matter of unfamiliar process- see end of this post. 1. temp/thermostat 2. draining off glycerine in base stage while reactor is running seemed complicated, ESPECIALLY because of the mention of pump agitation being optimal for this. I used to have only stirred reactors, not pump ones, and I now have only pump ones. It used to seem complicated to drain off glycerine while the thing was pumping, I think a year ago I assumed that this was some feature of finding a slow pump that circulatred slowly enough that the glyc could settle while it was moving around. That's quite wrong, isn't it? He says 'start draining off glycerine' and I guess if you're starting out with the process it's not quite clear that it can mean 'stop and settle for a moment and drain' . just some stupid confusion on my part, I think it stopped me though 3. not knowing if you'd get bad results if you did it in a faster agitating reactor, and me not having a slow pump to try it out with. you really don't need a slow pump , but it seemed that way from a cursory reading of the instructions I actually eventually stuck a slow pump I already own onto a processor right alongside the fast pump that was already mounted on it, and did agitation experiments with both acid base and singlestage and concluded that it made no differnence, but I think it might be useful to make it clear in the directions that you can do this using your 'regular' processor ... I guess #3 (not knowing why something is important that's printed in the directions). addresses things I think other people have trouble with in this process- not knowing WHY something is in the recipe, and not knowing therefore if you can tweak it. I know, I know, follow the directions, don't change it and all that (I'm one of the titrators by the way, and I don' t do the phosphoric acid addition at the end cause of the soap/ffa splitting issue) but sometimes you tweak things because you have to- such as things going wrong with your equipment, etc, and it is helpful that in singlestage its easy to read some info about what effect the different parameters have on the results.. My big point in talking to people about this subject lately is that with ye Olde Single-Stage process, there's quite a bit of info (and some misinfo!) out there, it's been easily available for years now, all about how singlestage works or doesn't and why we have certain parameters in the 'recipe'; we follow. But with acid-base? there's just less publically published feedback in the collective homebrewer knowledge base on what works or doesn't and how and why, because it's a newer process, and there's been all this slander around it that clouds the issue, and simply because less people do it so there's less of us posting results and suggestions and furthering the collective knowledge base. The parameters of the process just aren't as clear as they are for singlestage, mostly because it's one person's contribution and writing of the directins instead of a whole online community's writing of the directions for singlestage.... I'm quite fascinated (make that obsessed) by the acidbase process right now. It started when I got an offlist email at the Yahoo Biodiesel list from someone asking if I tweak anything or if I stick with the recipe, and the guy said "I'd ask onlist but it'd only serve to keep the resident village idiot amused" (our active troll at the time was having quite a bit of fun slandering acidbase, considering he hasn't done it) And I realized that it';s an unfortunate state of affairs that there's not more of a conversation going on about what works for people in this process, and that the slander stuff was really having it's way at least on that list- that the educational process was just dead stopped, to where someone felt they couldn't even ask in public for fear of starting up the trolling.... So, thinking about why people sometimes 'don't get' this process, or are intimidated by it: some random suggestions on presenting the material: maybe a bit more info sometime on why things are in there a certain way? An easy one for starters might be explaining the optional glycerol retraction in the base stage- that sounds like aleks' equilibrium concerns (read his first twostage base-base process.) So people who are worried about conversion for example might want to consider if they've tried the retraction or not. Also there are a couple of 'optional' steps, and getting more of an explanation on why to do them or why to choose not to do them might help make it all make more sense to beginners.... mark ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Get A Free Psychic Reading! Your Online Answer To Life's Important Questions. http://us.click.yahoo.com/Lj3uPC/Me7FAA/uetFAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. 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