no, the elements don't burn the oil to any point that matters (you'll get black stuff on the element but ffa content is unaffected) and a preheat tank does not need to be stirred, so it can just be a plain (metal!) barrel without a circulating pump.
Neither does the water heater processor need to be stirred during it's preheating stage, and you should to avoid methanol fumes/pressure buildup danger, turn off the heat once you're ready to add methanol to the tank... It's all about good insulation to keep the heat in once you've turned off the heating element. use lots of insulation! ON the burning oil issue: the disadvantage of using a separate oil preheat barrel that is not the reactor, is that the heating element gets a buildup of black stuff especially if the oil is full of starch from food. I'mn not sure if the black stuff would shorten the life of your heating elemetn, I've never burned one out. (they do burn out from being turned on while not completely covered in liquid though) But in a reactor this buildup doestn' happen, as the process of making biodiesel removes the black stuff (which ends up in the glycerol along with any other heavy solid matter). by the way I haven't seen FFA content go up very much from 'boiling off water'- I don't think it's a problem (lately I've been dewatering using 6000 watt heating elemetns- which is about as hot as an eletric water heater element can get). But you should re-check the titration after you've boiled off water to be sure. mark --- In biofuel@yahoogroups.com, Keith Addison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > A lot of people don't like the combination of poly drums and heating > elements, and indeed there have been reports of fires with such > processors. some good photos of this problem and the fire at www.veggieavenger. com/media in a thread about 'the problem with plastic processors' or something like that. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/ Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuel/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
