Rafal,
1 - 2L test batches w. virgin oil ..... Good
99% pure KOH V. Good
(If you are concerned about the purity and have
NaOH of known purity you can test the KOH)
Temp and agitation also sound good.
If there is water in the methanol you will make more soap (emulsion)
and there will be less methanol ---> incomplete reaction (emulsion).
As I understand it, you have done test batches w virgin oil and
have gotten unsatisfactory results .... emulsions upon washing. You are
concerned about incomplete reactions.
Question #1: Are you careful to exclude the glycerine byproduct from the
wash?
Question #2: The oil titrated at 0.925 ml of .99KOH.. This is significant.
Have you run a batch with an additional .9 - 1.0 g KOH/L you got from
titration?
3.5g 100%NaOH/L of oil = 4.9 g 100%KOH/L of oil
Add 0.9 - 1.0 g of the KOH (from titration) you would be using 5.8 - 5.9 g
of KOH/L of oil.
This additional .9 -1.0 g represents an increase of 18 - 20% over the
amount used for virgin oil w/o FFAs. When you consider that your KOH may be
less than 99% pure,
the amount needed would be even higher. This could very well be the cause of
the incomplete reaction.
Treat the virgin oil as if it was WVO. Include your titration results in
the amount of KOH to be added and run a batch exactly as you have before.
Let us know how it worked out and we'll proceed from there.
Of course you could go out and buy some "high quality" veg oil that
titrates zero, but then we would not get the answer to the puzzle.
Best to you,
Tom
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rafal Szczesniak" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <biofuel@sustainablelists.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 20, 2006 7:22 PM
Subject: Re: [Biofuel] tirating a virgin oil
> On Sun, Aug 20, 2006 at 06:29:51PM -0400, Thomas Kelly wrote:
>> Rafal,
>> I assume you are doing 1L test batches? Correct me if I'm wrong.
>
> Yes. Actually these are 1 or 2l test batches. For agitation I use a small
> water pump originally designed for larger aquaria and also recently used
> in water cooling systems for PCs. Manufacturer says it's capacity is 700
> liters per hour. Even considering higher viscosity of oil it should be
> enough for 5l testing container. Do you think it is ? I can provide some
> pictures if it helps (I've done a bit of documentation).
>
>> Do you know the purity of the KOH you are using?
>
> Yes, it's 99% pure from chemical supplier, though I've noticed it's
> a little bit calcinated (some flakes are too white, in my opinion).
> I have also tried NaOH (same purity) before with the same result.
>
>> I have heard of virgin oil containing some FFA. I have no experience
>> with such oil.
>
> It's probably normal, as it sounds impossible to make fresh oil with
> absolutely no FFAs. The question is - what amount is 'normal' and what
> is definately not ?
>
>
> --
> cheers,
>
> Rafal Szczesniak **mir[at]diament.iit.pwr.wroc.pl
> Samba Team member mi***[at]samba.org
> +---------------------------------------------------------+
> *BSD, GNU/Linux and Samba http://www.samba.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/
>
>
>
_______________________________________________
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/
