RogueRose
International Hazard
Posts: 1585
Registered: 16-6-2014
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Mixing diesel & methanol with oils/fats
Something odd happened recently when I was messing around with trying to see how some oils (mainly lard and tallow) would mix with diesel and I tried
a little methanol. All were heated to about 140F and mixed, I used from 10-30% diesel and 20% methanol. That's not what I'm writing about though.
After I tested everything I threw everything together in a bottle, heated it to mix it up and allowed to settle.
I had about 130-150g of tallow/lard mix and about 25ml of diesel and 3ml methanol in the mix.
At first, when it was only heated to about 100F, I got 3 layers, 2 liquid but different densities and one that was very close to solidifying. So I
heated again (microwave) to ~140-160, shook it and allowed to sit for 2+ weeks and it has remained the same since, with about 90% a liquid like
vegetable oil and then a thicker layer on the bottom that is like semi-melted coconut oil (cloudy but liquid).
I think if I added a little more diesel it would all mix completely and am going to try it. I thought I would get stratification layers with all of
these since that is what I got when I tried the original lard or tallow & diesel mixes. The only difference is that there is a slight bit of
methanol in this mix where it wasn't in fat/diesel mix. Could this slight bit of alcohol allow the diesel & oil to remain mixed like this?
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Deathunter88
National Hazard
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Registered: 20-2-2015
Location: Beijing, China
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I'm willing to bet that whatever fat you're using will already mix with the diesel, regardless of the methanol. Also, what's the point of this random
mixing? Am I missing something here?
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RogueRose
International Hazard
Posts: 1585
Registered: 16-6-2014
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Quote: Originally posted by Deathunter88  | | I'm willing to bet that whatever fat you're using will already mix with the diesel, regardless of the methanol. Also, what's the point of this random
mixing? Am I missing something here? |
I didn't think the methanol really had anything to do with it, but the odd thing was that I had 6 samples with just diesel and lard or tallow and they
all remained liquid for XX time, but eventually separated after about 1 week. I figured this would do the same especially with less % diesel, but the
difference is the tallow and lard are mixed instead of being separated & the little methanol. IDK if that is part of it or not.
I was trying to see if there was a way to use some solid oils in a forge w/o having to preheat them and if mixing them with a % of diesel worked, I'd
rather do that than have to worry about heating the oil and worrying about it clogging the line if it got too cool. I was also curious about what %
mixture would be needed to use an fat/diesel mixture as a replacement or regular veggie oil in a diesel engine, as those often give the most
difficulty in use and they often aren't used because of this (and even in biodiesel conversion b/c of higher glycerin production)
Is there any way to speed up the stratification process in something like this? Heat seems to help mix it, and I thought putting it in the fridge
would turn it all to a solid, but I'm wondering how to keep it room temp and get the layers to seperate/
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