Several years ago a guy up the street was out on a sunny day with a
plastic fesnel lens that was about a meter long and 2/3 meter wide and
he and his son were focusing the sun on about a 10cm sized spot on some
asphault he had added to the end of his driveway. The asphault was
smoking. I grabbed a twig and put it on the concrete curb stone and
asked him to put the sun on it. He moved the spot to it and it burst
into flame in a second! I have heard of people getting surplus C-band
satellite dishes (the big ones) and glueing little peices of broken
mirrors to the dish and putting a heat exchanger up at the dishes
feedpoint. It needs to be aimed at the sun but it would be very
powerful and dead cheap!
Joe
Thomas Kelly wrote:
Thanks Todd.
It must have been 25 years ago that a friend was going to prepare
lunch in a "solar oven". The idea appealed to me at the time, but on a warm
sunny day we watched and waited, and ended up having to fire up the grill.
Solar ovens have apparently come a long way since then or you wouldn't
be recommending them for regenerating zeolytes.
I just Googled "Solar Oven". Something about solar cooking still
appeals to me, but I remain skeptical. In one part of a web page it says
they "quickly heat up to 360 -400F". In another part of the same site it
says Superior Cooking is due to the "slow even rise in temp." It's that slow
rise in temp that concerns me.
Are you referring to the same solar ovens (under $200 US) that can be
used to cook food (and do they really work?) or is there some other, high
tech version?
Tom
----- Original Message -----
From: "Appal Energy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, April 28, 2006 1:56 PM
Subject: Re: [Biofuel] Water in recovered methanol?
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.
The temp needed can be achieved in a solar oven.
Todd Swearingen
Thomas Kelly wrote:
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 <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*To:* [email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
*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
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