Using Magnesol.

[dgs]

A friend in the next village brought me a sample to test for soap. It had been bubbled but not for long, he uses potassium. The soap was 750ppm. I don't keep my magnesol in the bio room and as it was pouring down I decided to dose the jam jar sample with some magnesol paste from a plastic bowl, run off from a previous batch, so it had been used and was quite brown in colour. 

I used 3x spatula 'spoonfulls' (I think the level on the spatula is about 1ml) The jar was shaken for about 30 secs and then stood for 15mins. I took a sample from the top where the magnesol had started to clear, the soap was zero.

[Tony]

Wow that's pretty impressive...

[dgs]

Wow that's pretty impressive...

I know. I expected the soap to be reduced but not by that much.

[dgs]

With the help of a fellow brewer (still recovering from my knee op) I made a batch 2 weeks ago and used just magnesol to purify it, so no water.

After de-mething and settling the 200 litre batch showed 150ppm soap using a sample from the tank top, so I would assume a sample from the bottom would have been 2 to 3 times greater.

I mixed it with 500gms (1 litre) of magnesol via the compressor and let it stand for 4 hours. A sample from the top showed 30ppm soap.

The next morning I checked the soap again which showed 16ppm. I left it to stand 4 days then centrifuged it. The batch is in use at the moment and everything is OK.

[Tony]

So you just pour the Magnesol powder into the settle container and air agitate?  I'm tempted to give it a try, based on your findings, I must admit.  I thought I would need to pump it to mix it in.

[dgs]

Hi Tony, I've never used my pump to mix it as I don't want to contaminate it. Mix the magnesol with a small amount of bio, then pour it into the tank. If you do it dry, using air to mix, the stuff will get blown all over the place.

As an added bonus, (maybe for the bbb)  apparantly the spent 'paste' will burn for several hours.

Do you want me to bring you some down this weekend to try.

[Tony]

Yes please, that would be great

[dgs]

Yes please, that would be great

Will do. 

[dgs]

A test to see if using magnesol does reduce the water content of biodiesel gave the following result.

Water content of this batch dried at a lower temperature was 485ppm.

500gms of magnesol was added to 140litres of the same batch and mixed with a compressor at 28degs for 30mins. The water content was 315ppm.

[dgs]

http://www.vegetableoildiesel.co.uk/mybbforum/private.php?action=read&pmid=110386

Just a couple of photo's I sent to Rick for his site. Dregs of bio/magnesol are filtered through small woodchip column via blue roll. I rekon the pore size in this is no more than 0.3 micron.

[dgs]

just look at the colour of the spent magnesol, it is certainly pulling some crud out of my bio!

[Tony]

I've still got the pot you brought me to the BBB, keep meaning to try it!

So after initial settling, mix some with bio from the settle drum and pour in?

Do you agitate with a bubbler to mix or just stir it a bit?

[dgs]

Hi Tony, I mix with a compressor at 40degs for 30 mins. Then let it settle for 4 days. If you don't have a centrifuge the blue roll works really well. Try not to get any magnesol fines in the stuff your pour on the blue roll, the magnesol won't go through it but it will slow down the flow.

I only use this filtering method on the last 6 litres or so left in the tank, as per photo. All the lot, magnesol and bio is run off together then settled in a bowl before pouring through the roll.

I've started to use about 700gms of magnesol per 200 (ish) litre batch and as you can see the top of the magnesol is getting close to the exit which goes to the pump and fuge. The top layer of magnesol is easily disturbed and so I now use a separate pipe going to the pump which is sucking from the top of the bio. Whilst using the fuge I also remove the pump by-pass line from the tank to a separate container so there is no chance of any fines being mixed in with the bio and drawn into the pump and fuge.