Vegetable Oil SVO WVO waste cooking oil as biofuel

[SunWizard]

Sunwiz,
I have calibrated my cap meter to dry and 2000ppm 0% FFA oil and made my graph to determine 0% intercept. Mine is 304.7 @ 68 (I calculated this from the formula because tests were done at a lower temp)
Do I still need separate graphs for increasing % of FFAs?

Yes if you want a PPM number. But I have found PPM is not as useful as % saturation since PPM varies hugely depending on the FFA, see the chart on post#1. And % saturation easier to measure and compare between varied batches (then FFA doesn't matter.) I set a goal to get the % saturation below 60%.

Have you heard from others if their chips follow similar slope increases as yours did for increasing FFA's?

No.

[sooty]

I will start documenting % saturation from collection, settling, drying, pretreatment with glycerin to biodiesel and its final polishing. This makes it very easy. Thanks again. Jim aka. sooty

[Burbarian]

Back on the air.

Been catching up on a few years absence from the forum. Interesting stuff!

Haven't seen it, but if it's already been mentioned, I apologize for the repeat. A modest suggestion:

Use the capacitive sensor as one leg of an r/c in a 555 timer set up as a tone generator. The output frequency will shift depending on the water saturation level. Use a frequency counter to determine the frequency value between 0% and 100% saturation. Capture the output in a counter and subtract the base value. Divide by 100 to get percentage. You can use the output to drive a BCD to 7-seg display, or a simple LED bar. Old school CMOS discrete logic chips. You could also do the above in software with an ATMEL or even a PIC micro. A few dollars in parts from mail order electronics supply stores. Wired together and encased in epoxy, it could be the size of a match box. I'd hazard <$100 in parts, including the sensor. Might be a business opportunity here.