I've heard of using flash emulsifiers for WVO processing before; anybody know what I'm talking about? Anybody have any experience?

Maybe I don't know what I'm talking about... In short, you heat WVO up to around 300 degrees; hot enough to quickly boil any water, but well below flash point for the oil. After you heat the oil you atomize it in an open-topped container, and the water will steam off the top and the oil will settle into the bottom.

Then the oil is hot enough to flow through filters relatively quickly, and in theory you can short-cut a few days of settling in a matter of hours.

So, am I right with my understanding of flash emulsifiers? Or do they not do that?

Thanks for any help.

 

i use a blanket barrel heater to get over 212F to dry my wvo before making it into bd. it if you dont do this you have water in the fel that the water sep can't remove. is this what you talking about?

 

Check out the infopop biodiesel forums (google that and you'll find it) and do a username search for a guy name Tim C. Cook. He's been working on flash dewatering as you described for a long time. I've been considering building one but haven't gotten around to it as of yet.

 

This seems like you would use a lot of energy to heat the oil which is lost to the air once the oil cools back down. I would think running it through a big can of silca-gel would be a better option. The silca-gel can be heated periodically to drive out the water it has collected with a lot less energy wasted.

Edwin