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March 25, 2005 our reactor II goes online. Based upon the modification we made to the first reactor, plus additional modifications to make the process smoother and more consistent. |
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Top View: The methoxide comes in from outside the of the building just to the left of this image. | |||||||||||||
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Bottom View: | |||||||||||||
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Missing nozzle: This is one of the big improvements we have made from the earlier water wash design. We have just one water line that connects to the center top of the reactor tank and joins to a newly design spray nozzle that contains 5 misting heads. The eliminates all the individual connections to the misting head that we were always have leaks from. | |||||||||||||
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Air Exhaust: You are looking at the bottom inside of the reactor tank in which we run an airline to the bottom and attach an air diffuser. This is used after the glycerin has been drained and during the process where we exhaust the excess methanol prior to the water wash. | |||||||||||||
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Racor Marine water block filter: | |||||||||||||
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Methoxide input: This is an image from inside the top of the reactor to show where the methoxide enters the reactor. The pipe to the right that hangs down is used in both the mixing process and when the methanol is exhaust. | |||||||||||||
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Methoxide Tank: As in the first design our methoxide tank sets outside building and is gravity feed back into the reactor. | |||||||||||||
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KOH Mixing
Funnel: Looking from the
top of the methoxide tank we have put in a stainless steel strainer that
hold the KOH (Potassium Hydroxide) flakes. The methanol is then pumped over the KOH via
a brass shower head. This works great, everything dissolves and
you are away from the methoxide tank when the methanol is pumped
in. The strainer is also a few inches into the solution once the
tank is filled so to make sure all the KOH flakes are dissolved. I
do this about a hour before I add to the WVO to make sure that the KOH
has completely dissolved.
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Magnesol filtration: We like the
use of Magnesol instead of water wash, quicker and no water introduced
to the biodiesel to worry about later. The biggest challenge we
have had was getting all of the Magnesol out of the biodiesel before the
final filtration, we kept going through 2 micron filters very quickly.
We add the Magnesol directly into the biodiesel and let circulate for a
hour. Then we let it set overnight so a lot the Magnesol settles to
the bottom and most of it is drained off before filtering. We came up with a filtration system
that is on the left that is
inside the reactor. This filter will collect the Magnesol before the
biodiesel goes through our final 2 micron filters. We are currently using only 450 grams of Magnesol per 95 gallon batch which is well below the recommended percentages. Part of that can be explained by the 70 ml of glacial acetic acid (nearly 100% pure) that is added after the methanol exhaust and before putting in the Magnesol. |
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Working with Filtration Solutions they have made we two filter bags that I use for removing the Magnesol. The first bag is 200 micron that collects the majority of the Magnesol. After filtering that bag for 1 hour, I remove and let it drain above the reactor while I connect the 25 micron filter bag let it run for 1 hour which will collects the last bit of Magnesol. I still pump the biodiesel out through the 2 micron Racor filters that are shown above. The biggest advantage of the bags that I have found so far is that you can turn them inside out, shake them out the majority of the Magnesol then throw in a washing machine! | |||||||||||||
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