I got a batch of wvo that was a very dark brown color and titrated at 3.5. my question is, when I processed this stuff about 50% of it turned into glop. I tested it for water and it was clean and I havn't had this problem before so I'm stumped. what caused all this soap, any Ideas?????

 

Wow, are you sure your titration is correct?

My dark WVO titrates at 10-12ml per liter and my pale colored oil used for one Friday fish fry for a hadfull of retire-ees titrates at 6-7ml/l. Sure color is in the eye of the brewer, but you missed something along the line.

I'm thinking you may not have got a full conversion because lack of catalyst. What kind of lye and how much methanol did you use? 20-25% methanol? What kind of processor and what temp do you use? How long did you mix?

Keep in mind, I'm a thats had great luck with my 3-5 gallon batches. I'm still working on the 30 -40 gal processor so I'm not savvy with large batches yet, but I would still enjoy learning with you.

I had also found brewing information on this site very limited. That said, hopefully someone with more expeerience will chime in.

 

sounds to me like you titrate was wrong

 

I talked to the owner of the place where I got the oil he said that he was useing recycled cooking oil thus the dark color. I'm still stumped about all the soap though, I retested the oil and still get a 3.5 - 3.8... I used a 20% by volume of methonal and I use a commercial grade 99.9% pure sodium hydroxide lye. I start the reaction at a temp of around 130* not wanting to boil off the methonal. I also let each batch settle for at least 8 hours.

 

Have you played with the one litre test batches on this oil and tried fooling with the chems.? I have yet to run into "Rcyl oil", does that indicate it had been pre-treated with a process so it could be used again for cooking?

 

It probably means he filters again and again to reuse it?

 

You need to give more info on exactly how you processed. Temps, what you use as a base amount, what pump you use, how long you process, and so on. The color of the feedstock in no way matters, it's the titration number.
And for az.scarecrow, you need to check your titration too because there is no way once used oil cooking fish should titrate at 6-7 unless it sat in the dumpster for a year or so in the heat before it was processed.

 

I fixed the problem, my methanol/lye injector venturi was clogged up. it's all better and best of all, no more soap!!

 

so was it not mixing or what? I often thought if I make soap I get Bio, cause when I make Bio I get soap?