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BioDiesel Class 101
Class # 8
- Moisture Testing
Moisture testing is
easily performed & well worth the time expenditure. We give more details on
testing BioDiesel for other things such as soap content in
our book.
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Refrigeration Testing: Place a
small pint size sample in a mason jar, seal it up & pop it in your
refrigerator. You will want to check it periodically &
visually inspect it for water condensation droplets that may form on the inside of
the jar. If water begins to condense, you will need to access if the
temperature this occurs at will pose a problem or not. Will your night time
temperatures drop that low? If so, then your BioDiesel is not yet dry
enough. You can test the cloud
point temperature of your BioDiesel this way as well.
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Weighing, Heat testing: Obtain
a disposable microwave safe container that can hold 300 grams of BioDiesel.
Using a digital scale
(such as the one we offer) Put around 300 grams of BioDiesel into this
container, write down the weight & call it weight "A". Microwave the BioDiesel
for 30 seconds, stop the microwave, stir the contents to
relieve any trapped moisture or steam from under the surface &
equalized the heat. Now Measure
the temperature. Repeat until the temperature reaches 250F then stop heating.
Continue to stir the BioDiesel until the temperature drops to a safe enough
level to remove it from the oven, weigh it again & write down the weight & call
it weight "B". Subtract weight "B" from "A" then divide that
number by the weight "A" &
multiply times 100. This gives you the percentage of moisture that your BioDiesel
contains. It should be less than .25% also read as 1/4 of 1%. If higher than
this you should seriously think about drying it some more.
QUIZ
And you thought we forgot.....
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About how much WVO or BioDiesel should
you put into the container for heating up & testing for moisture content?
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If you started out with a
sample of BioDiesel weighing 300 gram, heated it up while stirring & after
allowing it to cool down it weighed 297.6 grams, would this BioDiesel be dry
enough to use?
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What would happen if you spilled a
little bit of BioDiesel when stirring it for testing moisture content using
the heat, stir & weigh method?
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What should you watch for when
doing the refrigeration test?
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How can you test the cloud point of BioDiesel?
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How hot should you heat up your WVO or
BioDiesel when testing for moisture?
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What purpose does stirring the hot WVO
or BioDiesel serve?
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How can you tell for sure what the
water content of your dried BioDiesel is?
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What is the maximum moisture content
that you should allow in your fuel to consider it dry enough?
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