----- Original Message ----- From: Michael Allen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Paul & Keith, > > Thank you for your response. > > > >Paul: > > > > > >I tried slaked lime on some of our high FFA crude palm oil and had similar results to Keith. >>>Leaving it overnight to settle gave me only about 15% recovery of the oil. > > >Part of the problem is the very high viscosity of our CPO which is rather like mayonnaise even at 30 degC. > > >Things just don't settle in this goo unless you heat the brew. > > > > If you heat it does it settle? > > We did. To 80C. But separation was not good: Bottom layer soap, middle layer unreacted lime, thin top > layer oil. Avoiding excess Ca(OH)2 would certainly help. > > > >Terry's suggestion of quicklime has some merit because it takes the water out of the gloop as it > > esterifies the FFA but it still has such a low density that it doesn't settle for us. We probably need barium > > oxide or maybe something made from spent nuclear fuel rods! <snip> Michael, Revisited the neutralisation with slaked lime. Had a batch of BD which had turned to soap (too much NaOH). Treated it with acetic acid to liquify. Ended up with BD +FFA. Have had this batch sitting on garden lime for a couple of months now. Titrated it and acidity had not changed.Heated the mix with plenty of stirring, held at 100 deg C for over one hour. Next day titration was the same as before treatment. Decanted and retreated with reagent grade Ca(OH)2 Success this time titration dropped from 56 drops to three drops 1% NaOH. Into the tank it goes. Dug out the bag of garden lime and discovered the problem. Contents is 80% calcium carbonate, not a scerick of Ca(OH)2 to be seen in the bloody thing. So much for garden "lime". CPO certainly sounds like a challenge to work with. <snip> > > >Terry's suggestion of quicklime has some merit because it takes the water out of the gloop as it > > esterifies the FFA but it still has such a low density that it doesn't settle for us. We probably need barium > > oxide or maybe something made from spent nuclear fuel rods! <snip> Under impression that esterification by alkalis was way too slow to be practical. Have you had any success with this on other oils? Will repeat test on neutralising high FFA WVO with Ca(OH)2 just to confirm previous results. Hey wait a minute, Michael and Keith, both you blokes are in the northern hemisphere. This technique probably only works upside down. Regards, Paul Gobert. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Plan to Sell a Home? http://us.click.yahoo.com/J2SnNA/y.lEAA/ySSFAA/9bTolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuels at Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel at WebConX http://www.webconx.dns2go.com/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: http://archive.nnytech.net/ 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/
