Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Tank acclimation?

So with the newest two week operability information in hand, we discussed the situation with the chemist-entrepreneur-biodiesel provider. Since the last shutdown we cleaned the combustion heat and ran two weeks, then a shutdown (clogged combustion head, see other posts). After that cleaning we ran two more weeks (no shutdown). We opened the boiler up and it was nearly whistle-clean (why are whistles considered clean?).

In discussing this with the chemist, he opined our tank acclimated to B100 and stopped sending gunk into the burner. We like this idea and will keep our eyes on the situation in coming months. Perhaps the B100 puzzle is beginning to unravel:

When switching to B100:

1. Put the better filter in.
2. Install the line heater.
3. Use a smaller nozzle and jack up the pressure.
4. Suffer some pain with shutdowns as the tank's existing junk stop reacting with the B100.

Of course we don't know if this will work, but we are hopeful (less for us, more for others to start using B100).