donniej
Well-Known Member
If you have nothing better to do than read the ramblings of a wanna-be mad scientist, you'll definitely enjoy reading further 
I'm trying really hard to become an expert on all things vegetable oil and hope to get my research advanced enough that the local universities will be interested in colaborating work. To further this work I just picked up some more stainless steel tanks (like I needed more :roll: ) and a "baby sized" centrifuge. This stuff is to experiment with hydrogenating oil and rapidly sequestering liquid soap.
Hydrogenation is a process originally invented by Procter & Gamble around the turn of the last century (1800/1900) to turn low cost oils (cotton seed oil) into something like tallow. Some say this was to make cheaper candles, some say to make a cheaper butter (which was very expensive). They figured out that heating the oil and bubbling pressurized hydrogen through it would convert the fatty acids to stearic acid, the main fatty acid in tallow or lard. A "catalyst" is also required. A catalyst is material that makes a chemical reaction happen just by being there. The catalyst is not used up in the process and is used over and over.
We all have plenty of oil and can make hydrogen by simply mixing aluminum foil and lye (which is why we NEVER use aluminum in making our soaps). The catalyst was a little trickier since for some reason you can't just buy it... so I had to make it (long story, feel free to ask if you want to know). In order to make the hydrogen I picked up a "cornelius keg", a 5 gallon keg used to carbonate soda in soda fountains. The idea is fairly simple, put in a bunch of aluminum foil, add some lye water and put the lid on. I'm simplifying here but that will make a lot of hydrogen under pressure. Using some plumbing and shop tools I have laying around, I'll hook it all up and after the hydrogen, oil and catalyst are mixed it gets cooked at 300*F for 3 hours. Then when I drain the oil out it should turn rock hard when it cools showing that it's now pure stearic acid and glycerin. Hopefully it will work and I can make some cool candles out of it 8)
The second experiment is to use a small centrifuge to sequester liquid soap *very* fast. There are a couple types of centrifuges, the washers we wash our clothes in are what's called a basket centrifuge. The "basket" holds the clothes and when it spins on the spin cycle the water is forced out of the small holes. Since the clothes don't fit through the holes, they stay in the basket and get dry. The type of centrifuge I'm using for this experiment is a bowl type centrifuge. There is a small bowl inside that spins very fast. Liquid soap is pumped in and is flung against the side of the bowl. This is like the ride at the amusement park where you are stuck to the wall and can't lift your arms Except the liquid slowly fills up and spills over the side of the bowl but any solids like the unsaponified stuff will stick to the wall of the bowl. The liquid that spills over is pumped into another container and is now clean. This should cut down sequestering time from 2+ weeks to 2 or 3 hours (for 50 gallons). After a batch is done, you open the bowl and clean out the "stuff" stuck to it. I'm also anxious to try some chemical analisys to figure out what this stuff is and what it can be used for. I suspect it's mostly unsaponified free fatty acids.
Wish me luck (and a little free time). Thanks for reading!
I'm trying really hard to become an expert on all things vegetable oil and hope to get my research advanced enough that the local universities will be interested in colaborating work. To further this work I just picked up some more stainless steel tanks (like I needed more :roll: ) and a "baby sized" centrifuge. This stuff is to experiment with hydrogenating oil and rapidly sequestering liquid soap.
Hydrogenation is a process originally invented by Procter & Gamble around the turn of the last century (1800/1900) to turn low cost oils (cotton seed oil) into something like tallow. Some say this was to make cheaper candles, some say to make a cheaper butter (which was very expensive). They figured out that heating the oil and bubbling pressurized hydrogen through it would convert the fatty acids to stearic acid, the main fatty acid in tallow or lard. A "catalyst" is also required. A catalyst is material that makes a chemical reaction happen just by being there. The catalyst is not used up in the process and is used over and over.
We all have plenty of oil and can make hydrogen by simply mixing aluminum foil and lye (which is why we NEVER use aluminum in making our soaps). The catalyst was a little trickier since for some reason you can't just buy it... so I had to make it (long story, feel free to ask if you want to know). In order to make the hydrogen I picked up a "cornelius keg", a 5 gallon keg used to carbonate soda in soda fountains. The idea is fairly simple, put in a bunch of aluminum foil, add some lye water and put the lid on. I'm simplifying here but that will make a lot of hydrogen under pressure. Using some plumbing and shop tools I have laying around, I'll hook it all up and after the hydrogen, oil and catalyst are mixed it gets cooked at 300*F for 3 hours. Then when I drain the oil out it should turn rock hard when it cools showing that it's now pure stearic acid and glycerin. Hopefully it will work and I can make some cool candles out of it 8)
The second experiment is to use a small centrifuge to sequester liquid soap *very* fast. There are a couple types of centrifuges, the washers we wash our clothes in are what's called a basket centrifuge. The "basket" holds the clothes and when it spins on the spin cycle the water is forced out of the small holes. Since the clothes don't fit through the holes, they stay in the basket and get dry. The type of centrifuge I'm using for this experiment is a bowl type centrifuge. There is a small bowl inside that spins very fast. Liquid soap is pumped in and is flung against the side of the bowl. This is like the ride at the amusement park where you are stuck to the wall and can't lift your arms
Except the liquid slowly fills up and spills over the side of the bowl but any solids like the unsaponified stuff will stick to the wall of the bowl. The liquid that spills over is pumped into another container and is now clean. This should cut down sequestering time from 2+ weeks to 2 or 3 hours (for 50 gallons). After a batch is done, you open the bowl and clean out the "stuff" stuck to it. I'm also anxious to try some chemical analisys to figure out what this stuff is and what it can be used for. I suspect it's mostly unsaponified free fatty acids. Wish me luck (and a little free time). Thanks for reading!
