Re: [Biofuel] Water in recovered methanol?

[Thomas Kelly]

Joe,      Thanks for the reply. You wrote: 1. "There is a significant energy input into regenerating the seives as well.  You have to bake them at well over 100 degrees C more like 200, but you can get by with lower temps if you bake them out with vacuum."        I came across molecular sieves while reading about ethanol purification, and was lead to believe (mistakenly?)that they can be regenerated by drying in the sun.    "Try putting a thermometer in your condenser and monitor vapour temperature to get a better endpoint and you will have an easier time."     I don't know what this will tell me.  What would I be looking for in terms of vapor temp?   3. "I have some excellent references on solvent drying I can mail you if you want. No soft copy sorry but I might be able to scan them."      I would appreciate them. I am in the early stages of planning ethanol ferment/distillation. If the permit is approved, I hope to start in the coming months.                            Thanks again,                                         Tom     ----- Original Message ----- From: Joe Street To: biofuel@sustainablelists.org Sent: Friday, April 28, 2006 10:27 AM Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Water in recovered methanol? 3A sieves will work but are normally used for getting tiny amounts of water out of solvents to bring them into the low ppm range.  They will work of course but you might saturate them and have to do a second stage.  There is a significant energy input into regenerating the seives as well.  You have to bake them at well over 100 degrees C more like 200, but you can get by with lower temps if you bake them out with vacuum.  Try putting a thermometer in your condenser and monitor vapour temperature to get a better endpoint and you will have an easier time.  You have answered some of my own questions.  I have recovered some methanol but not tried to use it yet.  Sounds like if straight distillation is carefully done the methanol is dry enough to use without further drying. Great news and thanks for the post! :) I have some excellent references on solvent drying I can mail you if you want. No soft copy sorry but I might be able to scan them. Joe Thomas Kelly wrote: Good day to all,      After splitting the glycerine coproduct from roughly 1200L of processed WVO, I distilled approximately 100L of the glycerine/methanol component.      The first drops of methanol began to fall from the condenser at 145F. As the temp rose to 150F there was a steady flow of clear liquid from the condenser. Throughout the day I turned the heat off when the flow was steady and back on when it slowed.      I filled a 4.5 gal (17.7L) cubie with clear liquid and started a second one. At this point the temp was over 160F. I let the still run up to 200F. At this point the second cubie had 4 gallons of clear liquid (and it was now 1AM) giving a total of 8.5 gal. I was thrilled with the result (and tired). I used the first 4.5 gal (17.7L) to run one batch, and while that was settling ran a second batch using the second 4 gal of recovered methanol.      The first batch washed OK, but was a little slow to separate. It failed the methanol quality test.      The second batch did not even pass the wash test. I have been making consistenly high quality BD for several months  ... thank you JtF and list members. I don't think I made mistakes in measurement or titration. My question:     As my distillation temps rose towards 200F (93C) could I have been including water in my distillate? (The methanol recovered at lower temps performed better than the methanol recovered at higher temps.) If so, can I use Zeolite "molecular sieves" in the future to remove it?                       Thanks,                                  Tom _______________________________________________ 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/ _______________________________________________ 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/

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