Heating time and temps

[PhatB]

For those making their own Bio, if you would, please tell me your heating times, temps, size of your processor, and wattage of your heating elements.



I am in the final steps of designing my system, and would like to get some real world numbers to help me decide on final designs for heating.



Thanks in advance for any input.





Rick

 

[JoeBioDiesel]

For heating, I've got 1 55 gallon metal drum with a 5500 Watt heavy duty hot water heater element in it. Put a drain in the bottom, because at about 140F the emulsifiers that they put in the oil will stop holding the water, and a bunch will settle out. It's way faster to drain it than to boil it all off. Heat the rest of it to 220F to make sure there's no water in the oil, and then let it cool down a bit. When it reaches 140F pump it to the reaction drum. Don't mix the methoxide if the oil is over 120F. You'll lose too much meth to evaporation, which is a fire and health hazard.

 

[PhatB]

Thanks Joe,



How long does it take to heat to 140*F, and then to 220*F?

 

[JoeBioDiesel]

That depends on:

How cold it is to start.

How much oil is in the drum.

Whether you have the drum insulated and covered.



But mostly how much water is in the oil. If there is no water, you can heat 45 gallons of oil to 212F in under an hour. If there's a lot of water, it all has to boil out before the oil will rise over 212F, and that could take hours and hours... but you gotta have dry oil to make good bio.

Joe

 

[PhatB]

Joe,



Thanks for the info on getting the oil ready for processing.

I truly appreciate the advice, but let me give you a bit of background on me.

In my previous employment, I spent 19 years in chemical manufacturing.

One of the products was a coconut methyl ester, VERY similar to making bio.



Anyway, I did not mean that to sound like I am a know it all or whatever.

It's nice to know that you experienced folks are willing to look out for us newbies



I will also be drywashing with Magnesol, which I have used extensively to purify our all of our methyl esters and our family of silicone fluid products.

(lol, still saying "our" after not having worked for them since 2005).

Anyway, Magnesol has miraculous power of adsorbtion.

It loves those nasty impurities that our engines do not.



Anyway, the long and short is that I needed the heating times, temps, and processor sizes so I can take that info and finish designing my heat exchanger.