Electrostatic separation of glycerol from biodiesel
Glycerol separation @ 1000V AC, 0.004mA
9 September 2006 - Graham Laming
Doesn't seem to work for dewatering or cleaning WVO, unfortunately.
The glycerol is quite a light colour with
biodiesel made from new sunflower oil.
Notice how the bottle shows no sign of
separation at all, yet.
This technique works well on biodiesel made
from high FFA oil too, and works with hot or cold
biodiesel.
Here's another video using biodiesel made from waste cooking oil...
Guidelines on making high voltage source
Firstly, don't try any of this unless you are a trained electrical technician, familiar with the necessary safety precautions and procedures needed for working with high voltage. You need to protect yourself and those around you. I can't teach you what is necessary, so if you don't have a good understanding of this subject, don't try any of this.
A suitable supply can be made according to the general scheme below...
Instead of having both lines current limited, you could have one earthed, and the other current limited with twice the number of resistors shown for one line.
How can we apply this to a biodiesel process?
There are a number of possible ways to do this. Again, I am offering ideas only, it is up to you to develop a scheme to suit your process.
Allow around 25mm per 1000V plate spacing
Do not allow the electrodes to enter the glycerol layer.
Do not allow the electrodes to be exposed to an air/methanol vapour mix. You can achieve this if you ensure the electrodes are always submerged. This is to prevent the possibility of an arc occuring in the explosive atmosphere.
Here are some ideas for you...
What else can we use electrostatic fields for?
Emulsions can be broken quickly with an electrostatic field. In the pictures below, I have purposely made 2 very thick emulsions of biodiesel in water with soap, and I added a little phenolphthalein to make the emulsion boundaries clearer to see.
This is an emulsion which has been clearing naturally over a 12 hour period...
This is the same emulsion after 20 minutes of 4kV electrostatic field...
