<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: girl_mark</div><div class="ubbcode-body">What's your reaction procedure? </div></div>
Well first off we filled our reactor with oil, then we heated it up to 120 degrees, circulated it for a bit, then we put in our methanol and lye in the amounts we determined appropriate, next we circulated with a pump for 2 hours, with the water heater completely sealed.
Next we let it settle for about 12-16 hours, drained off the glycerin, turned the heat up to 150F then circulated and ran our recovery unit and got out around 6 liters of methanol. At which time the methanol recovery slowed way down and then we started thinking about it possibly reversing so we stopped and moved on the the washing phase.
We need to get a specific gravity tester to see how pure the methanol we recovered it. It was a very humid day so there could have been a bit of water, but we were doing the recovery via a closed vacuum loop so only the air that got in there at first would have gotten in. After that it should have all been methanol.
Here are some pictures.
http://www.samantha.cc/images/pic009.jpg
that is part of our recovery, that is where the methanol collects.
http://www.samantha.cc/images/pic010.jpg
that is the unit from above. We don't have it prettied up yet as we just started making biodiesel finally the other day and built that thing yesterday. It seems to work very well though and all the fumes are contained the way we have it set up.
