Great thanks Kurt This is what we were looking for. We even attempted to find the specific gravity of lye, but that didn't pan out. It was getting too complicated for us. A trip to town would be simpler we figured. On 10/15/05, Kurt Nolte <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hey Brian > I've run into problems with measuring lye myself, and ultimately managed to > work out a loose but somewhat workable way to measure out the lye by volume. > It produced some of my best results to date, too, so I think I'm safe to > share it with yas. > > Sodium Hydroxide has a density of 2.1 grams per cubic centimeter. Since a > cubic centimeter = a milliliter, you can use your beaker with mL scale on it > to measure out the lye volumetrically. For a test batch with virgin oil it's > going to be some incredibly small number; under 2ml, I believe. I was only > doing a 300mL test batch, so I needed under a milliliter of NaOH. > > Using the density of NaOH, convert your titrated grams into milliliters, > then measure them out volumetrically and add to your methanol as per normal. > I'd suggest erring on the side of caution when measuring it out though; > unless your beaker is graduated in .01mL increments it might be hard to get > a truly accurate volume. > > I decided when I tried it to err on the low side, as an incomplete reaction > I've read can be reprocessed but too much lye is worse news on the washing > step. We will try this. > In the end though, all these guys on the list are right; there's no > substitute for a good, accurate gram scale. I agree but you know how it is with the first step in a new process, we want to see where it goes even if it does not work at all. Experimenting in New Mexico, Brian Rodgers
Just picked on up myself, in > fact, measures out to .1 grams with a 500g capacity. > > Good luck to ya! > > -K _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
